Keys and Crosses - Season II
by Draconai
Summary: Showing up at a school for monsters isn't the most pleasant of surprises, but Kairi Chikai has powered through it - and made it to her sophomore year! Tough jocks? Shallow cheerleaders? Witch, please; the love triangles at Yokai Academy are over the flavour of a girl's blood! AU, monsters and setting from Rosario Vampire. Reading of Season I necessary to fully enjoy this fic.
1. Revival at Yokai

Draco: _Stupid_. Worth it. If you're seeing the name _Keys and Crosses_ for the first time, check my page for Season I.

Alright, let me get something out of the way before we start the story. _Someone_ **is** going to **die**. They have already been decided, so don't bother trying to coerce me. They are **actually** going to be dead, they are _not_ going to become Kyonshi, it will _not_ be someone who died in their source [Kingdom/Fantasy]*, and it **will** be someone major (to K+C, anyways). I am saying this now because several of you are Genre Savvy _connards_ who do not know how to react appropriately to implied character death, and at least one of you is a clueless metagamer who verifiably refuses to believe anyone is dead without seeing the body **go still** firsthand. And quite frankly, it pisses me off. Nothing ruins a dramatic scene more than the Genre Savvy _fils de pute_ saying "There's no way he's dead" or "She's got to be a traitor". Including when the _fils de pute_ in question is **my own mind**. I don't know what you guys enjoy about picking that Mulch out ahead of time.

*Characters who have _temporarily_ died in their source [Kingdom/Fantasy] qualify as "someone who died in their source [Kingdom/Fantasy]", so if I kill off, say, Tidus, then that doesn't qualify as the someone who is going to die. However, that does not exempt said characters from permanent death, so if I _do_ kill off Tidus, that does not guarantee he will become a Kyonshi. (Yes, I know that Tidus does not qualify as a major character, I just need an example of temporarily dead and he's the only one I could think of off the top of my head).

On an unrelated note (#SincerityMode), there will be spoilers for Final Fantasy Type-0 later on. Grab the game while you can. If you don't have the game but have been waiting for this, feel free to read the first few chapters. I'll leave a warning when I start including the 0-ers for those (like me) who prefer to know next-to-nothing when they begin a game, and then a warning when I start including 0-er spoilers for those who just prefer not to get plot twists ruined.

On another unrelated note, I'm going to be making Sword Art Online references. Some of them may be spoilers. You might want to binge the anime. It's on Netflix.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Revival at Yokai**

Large cities often have a lot of winding, twisting alleyways. The upside is that they're easy to lose pursuers in - the minus side is that they're easy to get _lost_ in. A dead end can spell trouble for anyone who hasn't managed to lose their pursuers yet - which meant that the girl charging her way through the back alleys of Anvāsu was very displeased when she found herself taking a corner and finding a brick wall looming in front of her.

"There you are, you bitch!"

A curse emerged from the girl as she turned round, reaching for the weapon she had slipped through the back of her belt. She had made the mistake of trying to take a shortcut through what turned out to be yakuza territory; now the gang had cornered her, revolvers drawn. The leader stepped forward at the head of the gang, levelling his weapon on her. "You're gonna regret ever setting foot in this city."

"I'm not here because I want to be," the girl insisted. "This was just... temporary habitation. If I had the choice, I never would have come back to this place. I plan on leaving tomorrow."

The yakuza snickered. "Let me punch your ticket early, then," he observed, setting a finger on the trigger. "You're not gonna _get_ a tomorrow."

The girl growled low. She _really_ didn't want to have to do this, especially not to people with a justified (well, for Anvāsu, anyway) reason to be angry at her... but if they refused to listen to reason-

"Hey!"

The voice from behind caused the yakuza to halt, pulling his finger away from the trigger to ensure he didn't misfire from the distraction.

"Leave her alone."

The entire group turned to see another, younger girl standing behind them. She had red hair that danced at shoulder length, and was dressed rather simply. Braced against the ground with one hand was a wooden staff, weather-beaten and worn, with a snail-shell curl at the end; she had a bag over one shoulder, several envelopes and a manga volume peeking out the top; and around one arm was a series of chains, from which dangled what _looked_ like a padlock.

The yakuza leader scoffed, turning away from their target. "Who are you to tell us what we're doing, girlie?"

A smile rose on the girl's face. "Coffee shop, cold night, nice stick."

The gang members exchanged perplexed glances. "What the...?"

Their confused response only prompted newcomer to sigh, adjusting her grip on the staff so she was holding it near the center of the shaft. "Must be a different gang."

She drew her bag off her shoulder and tossed it over the yakuza's heads, causing the girl they had been chasing to catch it fumblingly.

Then, the girl with the staff rushed forward, and none of the members could even raise their guns, let alone fire, before she slammed a knee into one guy's stomach, causing him to double over and drop his weapon. She kicked it away and dropped low as the others fired, their bullets slamming into the buildings around them ineffectively; then she lashed her staff into one, two, three gun hands, forcing them to drop the weapons. The last guy managed to level his firearm on her, but she only kicked it with enough force to send it flying skyward, landing on the nearest roof.

Their attacker quickly thrust the point of her staff into the leader's weapon with enough force to pop the chamber.

"Still want to mess with me?"

The leader was visibly trembling as he tried to glare at her; but he realized it was pointless and quickly pulled his gun away, pocketing it inside his jacket. "Let's ditch this place!"

The group was taking off in short order, and the girl quickly set her staff against the ground again, hand going to brace it by the head again as she approached their victim - a girl who looked a few years older than herself, with rose-pink hair tied in a tail to her left side. As the redhead approached her, the rose-haired girl only shook her head. "Thanks for the assist."

"Yeah, sorry if you didn't really need it," the redhead admitted. "It's just, these guys are rangers, and I know from experience how much of a pain it is when you're not."

"No, really," the rose-hair insisted, "thanks."

The redhead offered her hand. "What's your name?"

This earned her a sharp glare from the girl with the rose hair.

She rolled her eyes. "What's your _callsign_ , then," she corrected. On receiving a surprised look, the redhead added, "I'm Oblivion Oath."

"Sif," the rose-haired girl replied, taking the hand and shaking it gently.

Oblivion Oath raised an eyebrow. "Any relation to 'Frigga'?" she asked.

Sif handed her the bag she had thrown before dealing with the yakuza. "Well," the rose-hair observed, stepping past her, "Frigga is Thor's mother, and Sif is his wife, so, not by blood." Turning to Oath; "Why, do you know a Frigga?"

A smirk rose on the redhead's face. "Tachibana Academy is a bit heavy-handed with mythology lessons," she admitted. "I _always_ get the Norse ones wrong."

"So you're using a rescued yakuza victim to cheat on your tests," Sif observed. "Dignified."

"Are you kidding?" Oath protested. "I _left_ Tachibana."

Sif blinked twice. "Isn't Tachibana Academy the highest-ranked school on the continent?"

"You sound like my father," Oath muttered. "My problem wasn't the _classes_ so much as the _students._ The jocks and the cheerleaders and even the _nerds_ were smacking me across the hall because I was focused on my studies. Not to mention the number of taunts because I wasn't dating a musclehead."

"I'm _engaged_ to a musclehead," Sif admitted, "so you'll forgive me if I can't sympathize."

Oath shook her head. "Nothing against it," she insisted.

The two of them started out of the dead-end, Oath taking a left and Sif taking a right. "So," Sif called as they parted, "if you left Tachibana, where do you go now?"

A smile rose on Oath's face as she turned to respond.

"Yokai Academy."

+x+x+x+

Kairi Chikai Bōkyaku arrived home with a heartbroken-heartwarming expression on her face. Her father, Shin Bōkyaku of Oblivion Enterprises, noticed her mood as she stepped by the kitchen; after a moment's contemplation, he called to her. "Did something happen?"

"No, Father, I'm fine," Kairi insisted. "I just finished that manga."

Shin winced - having gone through a fair number of series with unpleasant endings himself. "Did you remember the mail?"

"Oh, right here." Kairi backpedalled to the kitchen, drawing the mail out of her bag and handing them to her father - who was quick to shuffle through them.

"Bill, bill, spam, business letters, spam... oh," Shin called, offering his daughter a pair of envelopes, "these are for you."

Kairi accepted the letters. A smile rose on her face at the first letter, the return address of which was _Seventh Heaven, Edge_ ; that smile quickly became an expression of shock when she saw the next one came from _Yokai Academy_ , and she tore the envelope open in short order.

"Yes!"

Shin chuckled. "Let me guess..."

"Yep," Kairi confirmed. "Yokai's reopening. Didn't even have to wait 'til the middle of the year." School season had been approaching, and she had been worried that the school would still be closed by the time she needed to start classes again. Continuing to read, Kairi found herself giggling when she saw another point of order. "Well, I kinda figured there'd be something about that..."

"About what?" Shin asked.

"Nothing," Kairi insisted. "Hey, can you ask around at your company for something?"

"Something for...?"

+x+x+x+

 _Dear Kairi,  
How have you been? I hope things have gone well with your father. Looked into his company; apparently he made some big changes around the time you got back. I didn't think it was possible to fire that many employees in short order.  
Did you hear? Yokai Academy is already reopening! Time sure flies when class is out, huh? Can't wait to see you for the sophomore year! And it looks like the staff wasn't the only thing that got changed...  
Well, I save the surprise for when you get your letter.  
Talk to you when we get back to school!  
~Sora  
_

 _P.S. - Keep your blood pumping, snack tray._

+x+x+x+

"Your school's holding a _cosplay meet?_ "

Shin's reaction only got Kairi chuckling. "We didn't have school uniforms last year," she explained, "and they're gonna change that. All the returning students show up in costume, and they fit us for uniforms."

The businessman only shook his head, incredulous. "Why not just ask you to send in measurements and then send you uniforms before you go?"

Of course, the _legitimate_ answer was probably something along the lines of 'Some students can't exactly _measure_ that', or 'That's not the kind of data you want the mail staff to end up reading' - but Kairi knew better than to tell her father as such. Instead, she only shrugged and replied, "Because this is more fun."

Fun it was indeed. Amidst all the unkind memories Kairi had of Tachibana Academy, there were a few pleasant occurences. Even the worst bullies that the school hadn't let petty targeting get in the way of appreciating a good cosplay around Halloween, and being daughter of a big-name CEO meant that Kairi could spare no expense on a costume. A chain of bothersome web searches had culminated in Kairi finding and enjoying a particular video game with a particular character who was particularly well-suited for Kairi to make use of, and it hadn't even taken her a whole week to get an outfit together.

"And you're sure you won't get in trouble for taking our prototype _stun rifle?_ " Shin demanded.

"It's fine," Kairi insisted, hooking the weapon's strap over her shoulder. "The shock is non-lethal, right?"

Shin sighed nervously. "That's where 'prototype' becomes an issue," he insisted. "Please don't use that unless someone is threatening to bring you _serious_ harm."

Kairi bit her lip, remembering her past experiences at Yokai Academy. "I won't," she assured her father.

 _Granted, 'serious harm' is not exactly out of the realm of possibility..._

+x+x+x+

It took some convincing, but Kairi eventually managed to convince her father to let her meet the Yokai bus on her own. With a large bag over her shoulder and her wooden staff in hand, she made her way out of the city on foot; she had lied slightly about the date for the pickup, so as to give her a day's grace to get to the park near the edge of the city. It was dark by the time she arrived - the park was empty, and with a light spring in her step, Kairi made her way to a familiar tree whose trunk was covered in rough carvings - initials trapped in hearts.

 _M.S. + T.A._

 _A.D. + E.L._

 _K.K. + T.A._

 _Z.T. + D._

 _Y.S. + M.A. + T.A._

With a smirk, Kairi drew a small knife that she had brought for precisely this reason; then, she carved a pair of initials into the tree for herself, and cut a different heart around them - its arms not joining at the top, but arcing into curls.

 _N.K. + R.K._

+x+x+x+

She spent the night in the park, as she had before; the next day, she was walking along the highway's edge. There were surprisingly few vehicles on the road today, but Kairi was not particularly surprised - as the sun arrived at noon, she was greeted from behind by an engine's roar, and she let her pace slow as she turned.

A large bus slowed to a stop with the door directly in front of her, and as it pulled open, a driver with silver hair turned to her.

"Are you lost?"

The echoed words from their first meeting had Kairi fighting back giggles despite herself. "Rain just threw off my direction," she countered, despite there being not a cloud in the sky. "Which way to Anvāsu?"

The driver gave a slow chuckle, beckoning toward the back of the bus to show he had come from the city.

Kairi glanced at the wooden staff in her hands, uncertain; then she planted it into the dirt and stepped onto the bus. The driver closed the door behind her, and she took the first seat as the vehicle began moving.

"Might I recommend that you not arrive with a firearm over your shoulder?"

The driver's words only earned him a scoff. "It's not a firearm," she insisted.

"But neither is it a simple prop, either, correct? Walking in with a weapon in such plain sight will earn you no favours."

Kairi turned away from the window as the bus entered an unnaturally dark tunnel. "Are they being a little stricter about that, now?"

"It is not the faculty that you should be concerned about, so much as the students."

He turned to face her, his golden eyes gleaming.

"You made precious few friends the last time your life was on the line."

+x+x+x+

The tunnel emerged at an oceanside cliff road. The driver brought the bus to a stop near a leafless tree, and Kairi, with a smile on her face, picked up her bags, got to her feet, and stepped off the bus with a light hum. No sooner had she hit the earth than the door of the bus closed behind her, followed the road into something of a U-turn, and took off again down the tunnel.

A crack of lightning illuminated an unfamiliar structure - it seemed that Yokai Academy had received a serious restructuring while it was closed - but it was nonetheless a welcome sight, and Kairi did nothing more than smile in response.

"Feels good to be back in a school of monsters."

+x+x+x+

It felt like Samhain, walking around at Yokai with costumes _everywhere_. Some outfits she knew well, others she recognized out of fame, and still others were vaguely familiar - but deep down, Kairi was on guard out of the simple fact that she _knew_ , under every one of those costumes, there was a monster who could kick her human hindquarters in short order.

That didn't stop a beaming smile from lighting up her face when a familiar voice called over her shoulder, "Got jealous of everyone else's weapons, so you brought one of your own, huh, Kairi?" Turning round revealed a boy with spiky brown hair that would put a mace to shame, ocean blue eyes... and a necklace dangling from a choker around his neck - a loop of chains hooked to the crown, joined to a single chain that went to his choker.

"Sora!" Kairi stepped forward, giving him a once-over. "Is that _armour?_ "

" _Faux_ -armour," Sora corrected. Said faux-armour was dark blue, with pauldrons that hung down to his elbows and a brighter blue cape that split in two; a pair of bright blue belts were tied at his waist, and another pair each tied at the top of his sabatons, which were a simple pale steel. His hands were covered by fingerless blue gloves with large white cuffs, and a sword hung at his hip - with a bright orange basket-hilt and a waved blade (it wasn't _sheathed_ so much as just hooked in a loop). "Kratos Aurion, _Tales of Symphonia_."

Kairi scoffed, reaching into her bag. "Leave it to you to give me a stark reminder of your otaku-dom," she observed. Drawing out a plastic bag full of manga; "Here's your _Chibi Vampire_. You're gonna recognize almost everyone here, aren't you?"

"Pretty much," Sora agreed, looking around. His gaze returned to Kairi as he added, "Except you. Who are you?"

"Princess rifleman time mage from an _apparently_ unknown PS3 game," Kairi replied. Her outfit consisted of a minidress in pink and white, with a simple gold design around the collar, as well as black thigh-high stockings, a black opera glove on her left hand, a white opera glove on her right hand, and a simple belt with an hourglass hanging from it. The prototype stun rifle from Oblivion Enterprises was slung over her right shoulder, and she had her crimson hair tied up in a high ponytail. "I can't find a decent walkthrough."

Sora sighed, knowing from experience how unpleasant it could be to not be able to find a decent walkthrough. "Wonderful," he murmured. Then, changing the subject; "You seen any of the others yet?"

"Hey, guys!"

Like the devil had heard his name, the voice called to them; Kairi and Sora both turned to see a familiar helm of windswept blonde spikes approaching. The would-be war god raised his hand in greeting. "Roxas!"

"What are you _wearing?_ " Kairi demanded.

Roxas only chuckled, spreading his hands to show off his own outfit - which was little more than a long white _toga_ which bared his chest. He also had a very impressive pair of _feathered wings_ extending from his back, and on receiving their attention he set one hand against his hip - causing the chains there to clatter lightly - and held the other at his side like he was clutching something. "Call me Master of Synapse."

"Okay," Sora reprimanded, "I know for a _fact_ that you didn't know what Synapse was when we parted ways."

"Welcome to the internet era," Roxas reprimanded, lowering his hand.

Kairi shook her head. "Mind filling me in?" she asked.

"He's Minos," Sora explained, "the main villain of _Heaven's Lost Property_."

Roxas nodded. "Me and _Shi-oh_ found it not long after Yokai closed," he added. "We went through the _whole_ anime _and_ the whole manga _six times_ trying to pick costumes."

Sora chuckled. "Nice," he praised. Hooking his hands behind his head; "You get Poseidon?"

"The what now?"

"His weapon."

An angry groan passed through Roxas' lips. "Damn it, I _thought_ that looked like it jumped!"

Sora laughed, drawing his hands down. "Missed that much, did you?"

Roxas lashed his hand down, and a dark mist flowed from the palm. When it faded, he had a weapon of his own - a jet-black shaft with a hollow gap, filled with a chain of dark gold. A jewel lay in the hilt between demon wings that guarded his hand, and at the tip it spiked away to form kanji.

闇 _Yami_.

Darkness.

Sora's smirked, his hand going for the sword at his hip.

He was interrupted when a light emerged from behind him. A burst of shining mist missed the left side of his neck by inches, parting into twin shafts. One formed a gentle heart, underlining the other - which arced up and split to form kanji of its own.

光 _Hikari._

Light.

"What are you doing to my master?"

Sora glanced over his shoulder. "...Xion?"

His gaze followed the twin shafts. They met at a hilt that divided into angel wings, guarding the hand of its owner - a girl with black hair and icy eyes. However, at present, the only indication that she _did_ have black hair was a few strands that were prodding out from under a head of _icy blue_ hair, tied into twintails that trailed down to her waist. She was garbed in a form-fitting white outfit with some black patterns dancing about it, and from her back emerged a pair of translucent blue wings that wavered slightly as she stood there.

"I asked you what you were doing to my master."

No sooner had Xion got the words out than Sora broke down laughing, and she pulled her Keyblade away, dismissing it as Roxas faded his own. "Wrong Angeloid," he reprimanded, "wrong master - but you can definitely pull it off."

Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Angeloid...?" She glanced between Roxas and Xion before asking, "Same series?"

"Yep," Sora confirmed. "This one's Nymph."

"Remind me to check it out," Kairi requested.

This had the surprising effect that Sora, Xion, and Roxas all turned beet-red.

"Sora!" The familiar voice caused everyone to turn as its owner called to them. "Roxas! Xion! Kai-"

She fell quiet as Kairi turned, finding herself looking in what she could have sworn was a mirror. A minidress in pink and white, with a gold design around the collar. Black thigh-high stockings, a black opera glove on the left hand, a white opera glove on the right, and a belt with an hourglass hanging from it. Hair done up in a high ponytail - one was red, one was blonde, but other than that the outfits were identical. The redhead wore a rifle over one shoulder; the blonde instead had a knife hooked on her waist behind her.

Sora snickered at the mirror image. "Not so unknown if you and Naminé picked the same character, huh?"

There was a moment's more of quiet; then Naminé and Kairi each raised their white-clad hand, pointing at the other.

"Toki!"  
"Towa!"

The words emerged one-two; then the two girls broke into laughter.

Roxas glanced between them, confused. "Wait, so it's _not_ the same character?"

"Not quite," Kairi confirmed.

"But you're wearing the exact same thing!" Xion protested. "And you've even got an hourglass in the exact same place!"

Naminé smiled. "And when Sora's crown comes off, the clawslinger wears the exact same thing the Keyslinger does, right?"

Sora's hand went to his crown; then he raised his gaze to Naminé. "Wait, _what?_ "

Kairi nodded. "Two souls, one body. Same gear, same clothes, different attitudes. I know, it's kinda creepy how similar it is to Sora's rosario, but there's enough differences to make it matter."

"I can give you a rundown of the nuances later," Naminé promised.

"What's up, freshies?"

Kairi glared sideways at the comment. "Riku," she reprimanded as she turned, "we're not freshmen anymo-"

She and everyone else fell quiet. Riku was standing there in a gold jacket; his chest was bare beneath, with a red ribbon tied just under his arms, and around his waist was a crimson kilt of sorts, tied with a white bow. Armour in dark red decorated his arms with gauntlets, his shoulders with pauldrons, and his legs with greaves; a horned mask sat high on his head, and in one hand was a bright red signal fan decorated with an emblem of four diamonds, arranged to form a larger diamond.

"That's a bit... audacious," Roxas observed after a moment.

" _What_ the _hell_ are you _wearing?_ " Sora demanded.

Riku raised an eyebrow. "I'm holding an Ifrit-damned war fan," he reprimanded, waving said fan slightly. "Who do you think I am?"

"I'm not asking who you are," Sora reprimanded, "I'm asking _what you're wearing._ "

Kairi turned to him. "Horned mask? Signal fan? He's Takeda Shingen. Come on, Sora, even _I_ know that one."

Sora lashed a hand at Riku. "But _why_ _**that** Shingen!?_ "

"Because this is the only one I could find that wasn't a fat badass or muscled like a steroid ad," Riku explained. "I don't _have_ a body like the Tiger of Kai, okay?"

"So you picked the fire dragon from _Sengoku Otome?_ " Sora demanded.

Riku narrowed his gaze. "Otome? I thought it was _Sengoku **Basara**_."

Sora shook his head. "No," he observed, "I think _Basara_ Shingen was fat too."

"Whatever," Riku insisted. "The point is, I'm Shingen and I'm not fat. Can we move on to explanations about _your_ costumes now?"

Everyone turned to Sora, suspecting he had a reason for being so surprised as Riku's choice of cosplay - and indeed he did.

"Riku... the **whole premise** of _Sengoku Otome_ is that all the famous feudal warlords are **female**."

The war fan fell, and Riku's jaw shortly followed. " _WHAT!?_ "

Sora facepalmed. "Didn't you look into it?!" he demanded.

"I was looking for Shingen!" Riku insisted. "I only needed, like, three reference pics! He- _She_ was hugging a chick in one of them! And in _ribbons_ in another!"

Xion raised an eyebrow. "Why would a warlord be dressed in ribbons?" she murmured.

Sora groaned. "She wasn't," he explained. "The credits were designed to sate the cheap fans before things..." He gave a long sigh, then concluded, "...got interesting in the main story. Strategically placed ribbons were perfect for that front."

"I blame myself, for asking," Xion observed.

"The actual anime isn't that bad," Sora insisted, "I assure you."

Riku was fuming. "Great," he muttered. "Now I've gotta walk around until the uniform fitting like... like _this._ "

Naminé shook her head. "Oh, come on," she assured him, "it doesn't look that bad."

"Really?"

"No, not really," Naminé admitted. "You look like a stripper."

+x+x+x+

On the warning bell's sounding, the six of them parted ways. Riku and Naminé had been assigned to the same junior class, while Kairi, Sora, Roxas, and Xion found themselves all filing in to the same room of sophomores.

At the front of the classroom was a woman of most peculiar appearance; tanned, with hair a brighter white than Kairi had ever seen before, and twin-streaked markings upon her face. She was garbed in a white top with baggy sleeves, blue leggings, and a pair of black boots; she stood aside the teacher's desk rather than sitting at it, her gaze on a list as the class seated themselves. When the second bell rang, she stepped away from the desk, centering herself before the desks and turning dark cyan eyes on the class.

"Well, I'll not feign disappointment," she admitted. "A shortage of tardiness is always a pleasant sight."

This earned her a chorus of quiet chuckles.

"I should hope that all of you are meeting me for the first time," she continued. "I am Y'shtola, you homeroom teacher for your sophomore year. Forgive my unfitting attire; I'm new to the faculty, and thus was not asked to partake in the... procedure, as the returning staff was.

"May I welcome you all back to Yokai Academy, school and haven for monsters of all sorts!"

Everyone had been holding it in; now the class gave a loud cheer, several students throwing confetti.

Y'shtola had a smile on her face at their reactions. "Never seen a school in the human world that earned such a display at the _start_ of the year," she observed. "Now, I should hope none of you need any reminiscence on the basics of this school, but to my mild dismay I'm asked to reiterate them regardless. Rule one: maintain a human appearance-"

She was silenced when the door flung open with astonishing haste, causing everyone to turn as a boy with long white hair stumbled in, dressed in a red business suit and red sunglasses. "Am I late?!" he exclaimed.

"Yes," Y'shtola confirmed. "But nonetheless, I believe you've mistaken your map. I've as many heads here as names on my list."

"Senior Class A?" the newcomer inquired.

" _Sophomore_ Class A," Y'shtola corrected. "The senior classes are at the other end of the school."

A foul utterance emerged from the redhead as he left; Y'shtola only rolled her eyes at the door he'd left open behind him. "First day of a new year," she observed to her class, "I'd be more surprised if there _weren't_ someone getting lost."

+x+x+x+

As had her freshman year, the first period of Kairi's sophomore year ended with instruction to the class to wander the school grounds as they saw fit. The students dispersed in short order, and Kairi and the others found Riku and Naminé waiting for them as they stepped out.

"All four of you hit the same room?" Riku observed.

"Looks like it," Sora admitted.

"Everyone with the knowledge of what these do is here to watch 'em," Roxas mused quietly, holding his hand before him.

Kairi reached for the arm of one of her opera gloves. "Yeah," she agreed. "Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That _Rokusasu_ probably should have picked a costume with sleeves?" Xion offered.

This earned her a blow to the back of the head from Roxas.

Naminé shook her head. "The headmaster must've pulled some strings," she theorized, her voice low. "Making sure we're here to watch out for the weaker ones."

Kairi chuckled. "I'm not complaining."

No one argued to that.

"Hey, you all!"

The voice caused everyone to turn. The blonde who had stumbled into Y'shtola's class by accident was stepping towards them; his red sunglasses were hooked on his collar, and on his face rested a more modest pair of spectacles. "Can we help you?" Sora inquired.

"I think so," the guy replied. "You're last year's news club, aren't you? Chikai, Kingdom, Kioku, Kurai, Kaigara?"

"And Karui," Xion added.

Riku sputtered. "I forgot we were famous," he muttered.

The blonde snickered. "After a fashion." Offering a hand; "I'm Tenshi Hoshi." Kairi took the prompt to shake it; he released her grip before continuing, "I was wondering if maybe you could help me with something?"

"What do you need help with?" Roxas asked.

"You remember that cave from your first issue last year?" Tenshi asked. "I was picking around there the day before the school shut down, and I came across something I need a hand with. Could one of you come with me?"

Everyone exchanged glances. "Depends," Naminé insisted. "Did you see a time for the uniform fitting during your little lost episode?"

Tenshi hissed through his teeth. "Yeah, I suppose you don't want to miss that," he admitted. "No, I didn't, but-"

"It doesn't happen 'til fifth period."

The voice from over their shoulders caused _everyone_ to turn, pulling away. Sora, Riku, and Kairi all went for the weapons on their costumes before they recognized the face bearing a scar between the eyes. "Professor Leonhart!" Kairi greeted.

Riku chuckled on seeing his cosplay of choice: a leather tunic and shorts worn under what appeared to be a massive _apron_ , adorned in pseudo-ritualistic patterns, with bandaging on his arms, leather greaves on his legs, and a pair of sandals on his feet. "You're..."

"Some kind of emo dancer," Leon admitted.

"I was not going to say that," Riku defended.

" _I_ **am** saying it," the teacher argued. "It was Rinoa's idea."

Sora blinked. "Some kind of-" He snapped his fingers, pointing at Leon. "Wander!"

Leon nodded, a smile on his face. "Right," he observed. "Otaku. Yeah, Wander."

Xion gave Sora a look. "Um, 'Wander'?"

"The main character of _Shadow of the Colossus_ ," Sora explained. "Pretty much the only video game swordsman in existence who _doesn't know how to use a sword_." Turning back to Leon; "Which mean Professor Heartilly is..."

"Yeah, she's Mono," Leon confirmed. "Anyways, you mentioned you wanted to know about the uniform fitting? It's not 'til the fifth-period timeslot, so you don't have too much to worry abou-"

He was cut off when something shot up from under his hairline - and _everyone_ had to fight a laughing fit when a pair of _tiny horns_ emerged on his head. Roxas was the one who voiced their incredulity; "How the hell did you even-?"

"It was _Rinoa's idea_ ," Leon insisted, reaching up to the horns. They seemed to be entirely self-contained, so he simply slipped them back down as he wondered, "Why does she keep doing that?"

He stepped past them as they turned back to Tenshi. "Anyways, we've got that kinda time," Kairi observed. "Yeah, I'll come with you."

"Thanks," Tenshi sighed. "Meet you there?"

"Sure."

The blonde took off, and the news club waited until he was out of earshot before commenting on Kairi's choice. "Tell me you've got something up your sleeve," Naminé pleaded.

"Well, this isn't just a simple prop," Kairi admitted, tapping her rifle.

+x+x+x+

It was almost noon as Kairi to arrive at the entrance to the aforementioned cave. Tenshi was waiting for her as she stepped down, rifle still in hand. "You came after all," he observed. "I was worried you were gonna stiff me."

"Well, you know," Kairi admitted, "new school building, I wanted a little time to get used to the layout. They change the dorms?"

"Doesn't look like it," Tenshi admitted. "Come on." He started leading the way through the familiar tunnel.

A long moment's quiet; the blonde was the one who broke the silence. "This is where you found that succubus chick, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kairi confirmed. "Think she was a Yokai graduate."

Tenshi chuckled at that. "Put up a fight?"

Kairi angled her head from side to side. "A little," she observed. "Charmed our SiC, but he was a short-order takeout. She put up a bit of a better fight, but it was largely just a matter of landing the right blows." A smile rose on her face as she added; " _After_ the fight was the real problem; news deadlines are a pain."

They had arrived at the large arena where the fight in question had taken place. "So, you're a tough fighter, then?" Tenshi asked over his shoulder.

His words dropped Kairi's smile in short order.

She quickly leaned back as Tenshi lashed a hand towards her, missing her by inches. A short hop kept her balance as she stepped back, the boy drawing off his spectacles and drawing out a glasses case. "You're looking for a fight," Kairi realized.

"I do hope the famous news club was smart enough to send their toughest," he pleaded, slamming the case shut with his glasses safely inside before tossing it aside. "I've been sitting in the human world for ages, itching to let it loose."

Kairi sighed, drawing her rifle off her shoulder. "Thing about a fight is, you gotta get a good look at your opponent," she insisted.

Tenshi's smile dropped. "You brought a _firearm_ to Yokai Academy?!" he demanded.

"No," Kairi replied. "I brought a taser."

She pulled the trigger.

Voltage sparked along the weapon as small dart shot from the barrel, flying forward. Tenshi had time to raise a hand before him as the dart flew, driving lightly into his arm - and electricity _ripped_ through his body at the contact.

Kairi's heart sank when the shock faded, and he simply lowered his arm.

"You were saying something about a good look?"

He lashed his arm down - and his body began to bulge, ripping through the red business suit of his cosplay as muscles tore across his arms and chest. His eyes became voids of gold, black patterns arcing across his face from between them, and horns emerged on his head as his blonde hair became a wild mane of gold. His hands became massive claws, and he drove one hand into the stone beneath him as he smirked.

"You can't take out a _thunder beast_ with a _taser_ ," he reprimanded.

Kairi sighed, lowering her rifle. "In my defense," she insisted, "I've never actually _seen_ a thunder beast."

Tenshi shrugged. "Eh, this is high school," he countered. "You learn something new every day."

He rushed forward, voltage ripping up about his hand; Kairi only just managed to move herself out of the way as it slammed into the wall. She quickly hopped back while he was stuck, bracing the rifle before her and wishing desperately that she had _not_ left her staff at the road. "Two days of fight club at the start of the year," she insisted, stepping away the whole time, "the _one_ thing I learned was how to dodge."

"Is that all?" Tenshi snapped, drawing his hand out with a spinning blow - only to find Kairi out of range. "I heard you could kick ass."

"That's a common misconception," Kairi admitted. "That _I_ was the one winning all those fights."

"Oh, for f-"

The thunder beast was cut off when something _cold_ slammed into his leg. He yelped, leaping away - and slipping on the landing on seeing _ice_ had covered his foot. He raised his gaze back up the tunnel as Xion stepped out - her kanji-tipped Keyblade in her left hand, claws of ice adorning the other, and thin wings made of frost wavering about on her back.

"See, _this_ is how the fights usually go," Kairi admitted. "I keep someone busy, then the real fighters move in. I once made the mistake of fighting an abominable snowgirl like Xion Karui at a _lake_."

Tenshi growled, lashing his hand forward; Xion quickly moved her Keyblade in front of her and Kairi as a bolt of lightning ripped from his hands, slamming into the weapon - but possessing enough charge that the snow fairy, not wearing her usual gloves, was forced to release the handle. Her opponent quickly charged forward - only to get a solid kick to the gut when he was halfway there.

Riku had appeared out of nowhere, his face canine and his body covered in fur that was all too visible in his female Shingen outfit; as Tenshi stumbled back, he quickly raised his right hand at his side, and a dark mist gathered around it as his dragon-edged blade appeared in his grip.

"Or fighting a werewolf under the full moon," Kairi added. "Riku Kurai might be predictable, but you can only use that to your advantage if you know where he's going to be _before_ he starts moving."

An attempt at charging the werewolf in question got him two solid strikes with Soul Eater; an attempted third, however, was interrupted by voltage ripping up about Tenshi. He quickly growled, lashing his hand forward to strike Riku while he was stunned - and something appeared to bind his hand to his shoulder, throwing his punch off-course.

A _spider web_ had appeared from nowhere on his body. He tried to pry it off with his other hand, only to get that hand stuck; he raised his gaze as Naminé stepped in - her garb was identical to Kairi's own, but the opera gloves were not quite long enough to obscure the glowing blue chain that was all but fused to her right arm.

"And as it turns out," Kairi continued, "witches can take a _lot_ of punishment. Or at least, Naminé Kioku can. A bullet to her shoulder, flames up and down her arm, torture from a trio of one-winged angels - I mean, _damn_."

Unfortunately, more voltage proved to be enough to get rid of Naminé's web. She quickly thrust her right hand forward, palm-out, causing a massive gale to kick up in the cave; then her left hand went to the knife at her hip, and she drew it with a flourish - releasing it before her so it spun in the air before she grabbed it with her right hand and braced it before her.

Tenshi lashed his own hand forward against the gale, a ball of voltage flying from his palm - but it was shortly interrupted by a bolt of fire, and flame and thunder exploded violently on contact with each other. Naminé quickly ceased the gale as Roxas stepped out from behind her, his own kanji-tipped Keyblade in his right hand as flames formed a pair of fox ears upon his head.

"On the subject of burns," Kairi observed, "don't even get me _started_ on yoko. I mean, there's a cut, and there's a bruise, and there's a crack in your bone, and then there is _fire_. Roxas Kaigara is the one who showed me that fire _hurts_."

The thunder beast gave an angry _roar_ , causing all of them to raise a hand before them. " **You are _mocking_ me!** " Tenshi roared. " **You are _rambling_ , and you are _pissing me off!_** "

"Yeah, give him a break, Kairi."

Sora stepped in, still adorned in his faux-armour, and his own Keyblade - a simple silver shaft with a crown for the teeth, with a golden guard around the handle - propped over his shoulder. Kairi sighed, stepping back. "Fine, fine," she insisted. Turning to Tenshi; "You wanted a fight with the toughest one, right?" she asked. "Then let the toughest take you, one-on-one."

"Less jaw, more claw, right?" Sora asked.

Kairi hooked her hand around his crown necklace - upon which a cross was shining clearly. "You know me so well."

She pulled - and the loop connected to the crown disconnected from the single chain linked to his choker.

A _burst_ of sheer power ripped up around Sora as he stepped forward, the Keyblade vanishing from his hand. His fingernails lengthened, becoming long claws, and cuts dug into them, making them reminiscent of the blades of pin tumbler keys; his hair went jet-black for but an instant as a fiery red emerged from the base, not reaching the tip of his hair. His eyes fell closed; when they opened, they were shining gold for an instant, only for the gold to recede and divide his pupil from the blood red of his iris.

His hand went to the sword sheathed at his hip, and he drew it with a slide of wood on wood - the weapon was bright orange, with a waved blade, and he levelled it on the thunder beast before him.

"You think you can take a vampire?"

Tenshi slammed his hand against the floor of the cave. "Screw you!"

He charged forward.

The clawslinger leapt up, landing a solid kick on the thunder beast's jaw.

 _Everyone_ was surprised when Tenshi only turned back to counter the momentum, throwing a blow of his own; an attempt to guard it with the waved blade got the sword _broken_ as he skidded back from the force of the blow.

"He took a hit," the vampire observed.

"He _took a hit!_ " Kairi exclaimed.

With a shake of his head, the clawslinger returned the charge. Tenshi lashed his right hand forward, only for the vampire to catch it in _his_ right hand; an attempt to attack with his left hand only got Tenshi's attack stopped on the vampire's _foot_. A moment passed before the clawslinger slammed his foot down and lashed his right hand to the side, throwing the thunder beast into a spin - but he didn't expect Tenshi to attack with _his_ feet, which got him a solid kick to the chest,

And _cracked_ his faux-armour in the process.

Skidding back, the clawslinger saw the gash in his armour and sighed in relief. " _Finally_."

His hands went to the gash, and he _tore_ the restricting equipment off of himself, throwing it to either side - and revealing that he was wearing a _long black tailcoat_ underneath it that proceeded to unfold now that it was not contained. His hands slipped under the leggings, and he quickly ripped them apart as well, revealing smooth black pants beneath; kicking off the sabatons revealed some nice dress shoes had been hiding beneath them.

A set of knives was clenched between the fingers of one hand.

A set of _forks_ was clenched between the fingers of the other.

Tenshi got to his feet and was thoroughly confused by what he saw. "What the hell are you supposed to be?" he demanded.

The clawslinger chuckled. "'The hell' is most appropriate," he admitted.

He raised the hand of forks before him.

"I..."

He hurled the hand of knives forward, driving them into the thunder beast's legs.

"...am a _devil_..."

Then he hurled the forks after them, and Tenshi found his arms driven into by the cutlery.

"...of a butler."

His opponent had no time to react before he charged forward, landing a solid kick - unhindered by the armour he had been wearing before - that sent the thunder beast flying into the deeper tunnel like a shot from Kairi's rifle.

The _entire rest of the news club_ broke into a fit of laughter on seeing the vampire's cosplay of choice. As he turned back to them, Naminé managed to compose herself. "Holy Shiva," she exclaimed, "you're _Sebastian!?_ "

" **Totally** worth wearing a tuxedo and cutlery set under my armour for the past eight hours," the clawslinger admitted.

Xion shook her head. "Ladies and gentlemen," she called, "the _other_ bloodsucking otaku."

The vampire rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah," he insisted, "let's just get out of here." As the group started out, he turned to Kairi; "Can I have my crown back, snack tray?"

Kairi chuckled, turning back to him and holding out the rosario.

"No problem... Van."

+x+x+x+

"Is that a uniform for students or soldiers?"

Sora's comment on seeing Roxas outfitted was a bit overt - but only a bit. The uniform in question consisted of a slate-grey jacket and leggings, black boots, and white gloves. Just under the collar was a curious heart emblem in silver; it didn't join at the top, the arms arcing into curls. The same emblem was also on the back of the gloves, and as Sora looked him over the yoko rolled his shoulders weakly.

"Well, as least _Shi-oh_ can't give me crap for not having sleeves," Roxas admitted. "You're right, it's a bit much, but it's pretty comfy."

His comment prompted Sora to raise an eyebrow.

Roxas raised a hand. "You can get the gloves fingerless if you like."

The Keyslinger chuckled. "Alright, maybe it's not so bad."

"See what it looks like on a girl, then."

Xion's voice caused Sora to turn around to see her and Kairi approaching them. Their outfits were almost _identical_ to what Roxas was wearing; the sleeves were slightly less baggy, and the boots had a slight heel to them, but other than that it was the exact same suit.

Sora only chuckled. "It looks pretty good," he admitted.

Kairi held one arm before her. "It looks pretty _serious_ ," she admitted. "You could scare someone with this."

"I think that's the idea," Roxas countered.

"Kingdom, Sora." The voice from fitting room Roxas had vacated prompted the Keyslinger to step in.

Xion elbowed Kairi in the side. "What do you think of your first day back at the new-and-improved Yokai Academy?"

Kairi only smiled in return. "I wish I had never had to leave."

* * *

Draco: Deepest apologies if Y'shtola seems mischaracterized, one can only get so much out of a game they haven't invested time in. I do promise, however, that I shall do such temporal investing quite soon (that does not mean I'll be playing, though, so don't bother asking for my info).

I had the idea for this cosplay meet pretty much since Season I concluded. Enjoy the selection of costumes.

Kairi and Naminé are dressed as Toki/Towa Chronowind from _Time and Eternity_. After a few hours of brainstorming, I turn on the game and I realize that I have a blonde and a redhead that are otherwise identical. _How_ , exactly, could I _not_ have Kairi and Naminé cosplay them?

I'll admit that I planned on making Sora's _Tales of Symphonia_ cosplay be Lloyd Irving, but I eventually decided on Kratos Aurion. My reasons are petty: Sora isn't supposed to be dual wielding yet.

Roxas and Xion missing Minos' weapon is shameless self-reflection. First time I read the _Heaven's Lost Property_ manga, the site I was reading on didn't have the last chapter. First one I found with the last chapter missed the first ten pages or so. Which means I completely missed his big frickin' spear.

Riku as _Sengoku Otome'_ s Takeda Shingen was the first thing I decided. When I did, I was on a laptop with horrendous quality and screencaps of Shingen mid-episode looked a lot more masculine than she really does (She _does_ really look that masculine in the credits, by the way). Let's assume Riku had similarly horrendous quality when he did a search. And that _Sengoku Otome_ screencaps show up a little sooner than they do when you search "Takeda Shingen Sengoku".

I seriously put Leon in a Wander costume _just_ so I could make the joke "You're some kind of emo dancer". YouTube "Shadow of the Colossus with lyrics".

"Devil of a butler" is the line as it is said in the _official_ translation of _Black Butler_ , as of Volume VII.

The new school uniform is based off of the Hollow Bastion guard uniform, as seen in KHBBS.


	2. A Hunt For Hearts

Draco: Cecil's linguistics were not _nearly_ antiquated enough (and he fell asleep on the job, which befits _no one_ in armour), Edge should have been making Kairi uncomfortable when she answered the door (although when I started, I was thinking KHI character models), and Firion was talking straight to the girls (although screw II's gameplay altogether). That's what happens when you base your fanfic on the versions without voice acting and you don't do your research.

Also, I'm going to have to dig through my paper notes again to figure out **what** the _Pulse_ was my plan for having FIVE III-er representatives.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 2: A Hunt for Hearts**

Yokai Academy existed for one reason, and one reason alone - to condition monsters to live in the human world. In addition to teaching monsters to _behave_ like humans, that also meant having them _study_ like humans; as such, the classes were not particularly unfamiliar to students who had done prior studying in the human world, save perhaps the _intensity_ with which they were taught.

With such serious classes, one would think monstrous quarrels would be few and far between, yet with the previous year's occurences, Kairi was _surprised_ when a few days passed without incident. The worst thing to happen to her or her friends was a bit of unwelcome attention from the other students - and the worst of those attentive students from the previous year seemed to have vanished without a trace.

That changed at noon on the third day, when they came across a curious note taped to the class schedule, showing that _all_ of the time slots for classes in the afternoon had been assigned for _Self-Study_ , with a note to assemble at the bus stop.

+x+x+x+

The bus was in position when the sophomore class arrived, and Professor Y'shtola was waiting on board. Once everyone was seated, the driver brought his vehicle down an alternate, unpaved road that nobody had noticed before, leading to the edge of what looked to be a petrified forest at a lakeside; a small table had been set up not far from where the bus parked, with a large bag at one side, a smaller bag on the other, and a large pile of bags.

Only once every had left the bus did Y'shtola begin explanations.

"Alright," she called. "I may possibly be mistaken, but I do believe that the self-study project is a new addition to the Yokai Academy curriculum. So I cannot lie blame on any of you if you are wondering whatever we are doing here. However, I do not wish for you to go into this misinformed, so if any of you have any preconceived notions about this class, I would ask that you share them with the rest of us now, that I may correct any inaccuracies."

There was a long quiet.

"I thought not," Y'shtola admitted. Approaching the table; "Well, in a nutshell, this is effectively a matter of seeing how well you fare _independently,_ as students. I assign you a task, and you are left to your own devices on accomplishing that task. As with all things, you are to remain in your human guise during the self-study period, although we will overlook monstrous performances if any... dire circumstances arise."

The very fact that that was a possibility raised some silent concerns.

"And now, for the task."

She picked up the larger bag, and set it down sideways on the table; then she unbound the opening and grasped the bottom, raising it and causing a large number of books to slide out. They all bore the same cover; a flower, a bundle of berries, and a leafy herb.

Kairi, who had ended ended up near the front of the crowd, peered at them curiously. "Are those... botanic guides?" she asked.

"Just so," Y'shtola confirmed. "Surely you've all heard stories of people who have ended up stranded in the wilderness, and are forced to survive off of whatever they can find? Humans and monsters alike can find themselves in such situations. But identifying what among 'whatever you can find' is safe to consume - or to even touch - is not so easy as those stories may imply. And often enough, if you find yourself stranded in the wilds, you are not alone - and in the human world, it is more than likely that your companions will be humans."

She picked up one of the books. "Of course, humans do their best to keep lives intact. They have people patrolling the wilderness, they've built structures to be safe in dangerous places, they've written guides to nature - what is safe, and what is dangerous. But may I ask, how many of you have read a botanic guide, with any seriousness?"

Roxas and Xion both raised their hands awkwardly. So did someone in the back.

"And which of you know - by reflex, with certainty - whether a given plant is safe to be consumed?"

All three of them lowered their hands.

Y'shtola only smiled. "I thought not. Botany is a niche amongst humans and monsters alike. Most people have never spent more than half an hour at a botanic guide. And so, neither will you."

Horror adorned every face in the crowd.

"Growing within this wood are several growths and creatures of varieties to be found in the human world. You have thirty minutes to spend looking through these guides. Then, students will divide into groups of two to six, and proceed into the forest at timed intervals... shall we say, five minutes between entries? Located somewhere in the forest is a structure to serve as a designated safe zone. A similar structure is also located on precisely the opposite side of the wood from where we stand. Your objective is to reach one of these structures; and in the process, you must collect at least three varieties of herbs or fruits that are safe for human consumption. Once you have arrived at a given structure, the Yokai staff will be there to confirm your collections."

From somewhere to Kairi's right came the question "So where do the dire circumstances come in?"

"In all honesty," Y'shtola admitted, "I hope they shan't. But the query is valid. Professor Almasy has informed me that a gang known as 'Black Skies' formed amongst the Yokai Academy student body some twenty years ago, and made this forest their base of operations. They specialized in created beasts that would disguise themselves as simple growths - and though most of their beasts have been eradicated across the school grounds, these woods are difficult to search thoroughly." She picked up the smaller bag, unbinding the opening; from it, she drew out a boxlike device and several armbands. "For that reason, the headmaster designed an alert system for this self-study class. If you should run into anything that is clearly monstrous and poses significant threat, activate these, and do your best to stay alive. We will recover you as soon as possible, and you will not be penalized."

+x+x+x+

The thirty minutes passed a lot faster than anyone expected; then, groups were formed, and everyone started into the woods. Kairi, Sora, Roxas, and Xion naturally chose to ally, and were the third group to enter; the interior of the forest proved to be a winding labyrinth the likes of which none of them had ever seen before... aboveground, anyways.

"So," Kairi mused after a while of walking, "you two do botany, huh?"

"Did," Xion corrected. " _Rokusasu_ and I ended up on a bit of a survival kick not long after we left my parents' place. Turns out the wilderness around Altair is not friendly to a snowgirl."

Sora winced. "Ouch."

Roxas clicked his tongue. "Yeah, ouch." He came to a stop at a bush of berries, causing the others to halt as he looked over them. "I figured it was safer to assume _nothing_ was safe to eat, but for the most part that meant I was hungry like a fox." He pulled a few berries off the bush. "This looks promising. How much do you figure Y'shtola wants?"

"Just a handful should be good," Xion mused. "She did just say 'sample'." Roxas bagged them, and they continued.

"So," Sora asked, "if you weren't exactly scavengers, what were you guys eating?"

Xion pursed her lips. "I'm not exactly proud to admit it," she replied, "but I learned ice dolls pretty fast. Maybe you've heard of the outbreak of thieves leaving trails of water behind?"

Sora and Kairi came to a stop, glanced at each other, and then turned back to Xion.

"You guys were _thieves_?" Kairi asked incredulously.

"Hey, give us a break," Roxas insisted. "Not everyone's dad makes Bruce Wayne look like a hobo."

"Oblivion Enterprises isn't **that** big," Kairi muttered.

Sora shook his head. "You guys didn't think out your escape plan very well, did you?"

"I was ten," Xion defended. "We were stupid."

"No kidding."

Kairi turned away from the conversation - and was surprised to find a tree with several small fruits hanging from it. "Wait, is that...?" As the other three followed her gaze, she stepped forward. "Those are crab apples!"

Roxas clicked his tongue. "Looks like it." Then, when Kairi started forward; "Wait, you shouldn't just-"

"Relax," Kairi insisted over her shoulder. "My summer vacations used to be out in the country, I can pick these things."

Sora started forward, drawing his Keyblade and hooking it on Kairi's shoulder to turn her around. "Don't just charge at the tree because it looks familiar!" he protested.

Kairi glared at him. "Sora, I know my way around an apple tree."

"But do you know your way around poison oak?"

"What?"

Sora aimed his Keyblade at the ground, prompting Kairi to glance down and realize she was standing in an unfamiliar brush.

"Oh, no."

+x+x+x+

" _Fukai, fukai, mori no oku ni  
Mayoi konda mura no musume  
Iro aseta tegami o mote  
Yoru no yakata ni tadori tsuku..._"

The first group to go in had ended up split in short order. Now, one member of that group - a bookworm with more curiosity than a housecat - was wandering through the wood, with a few berries in his bag and a complete lack of worry, trusting that he would be able to handle anything that came his way.

In any case, he was rather more interested in what Y'shtola had said; the Black Skies' created beasts, hidden in the wood. And indeed, soon enough, he came across something that most certainly did _not_ belong in the woods - a patch of sunflowers, in the shade of a large tree (the fruit of which was quickly dismissed as unfamiliar and thus untrustworthy). Curious, the bookworm stepped forward, carefully observing the growths there - and as he approached, he saw the earth in which the flowers were rooted shifting, ever-so-subtly.

"Is this...?"

+x+x+x+

"Quit scratching, you're only going to make it worse."

The way that the new Yokai Academy uniforms wrapped the whole body made one think that petty things like insects and flowers shouldn't be able to irritate the flesh. Sadly - as Kairi had learned the hard way - a sufficiently unlucky step near a sufficiently leafy brush will leave little bits trapped between your leggings and your socks that could sneak their way up to exposed skin. Xion had wrapped the leg in a thin layer of ice to try and prevent the poison oak from doing anything before the self-study class ended, but to no avail; Kairi was already quite irritated in both senses of the word, rubbing her legs against one another as she walked in an attempt to relieve the itch.

Kairi groaned at Roxas' reprimand. "Either I had a _lot_ more pain tolerance as a kid," she observed, "or Yokai's got some pretty buffed-up plants. I swear it never took effect this fast in the human world.

"How many times did you walk through poison oak in the human world?" Xion asked.

"Weird as it might be," Kairi countered, "you're not the only one who was stupid when you were ten."

Sora sighed, glancing into their collection bag. Roxas' berries, Kairi's crab apples, and a collection of nuts picked by Xion had already fulfilled their quota, and pretty much all they had to do now was find one of the safe zones and call it a class. "I do hope the teachers know some treatments."

A yell of horror drew everyone's attention to the right. Breaking through the trees was an unfamiliar student at a dead sprint. "Run!" he yelled. "It got my bracelet! Warn Y'shtola! _Run!_ " He didn't even slow down as he spoke, and he already dashing through a bush without even slowing down; Sora quickly turned the way he had come and closed his eyes... only to snap them open right away.

"Damn."

His Keyblade was in his hands in short order, their collection back fallen to the ground. Xion and Roxas quickly drew their own Keys, the light-and-dark shafts crossing one other as they stood ready, and Kairi quickly reached for her armband and triggered the distress signal to Y'shtola. Even her ears could hear it: something ripping through the bushes far more than anyone trying to flee.

They saw it then - a quadrupedal figure that slammed into the nearest tree claws-first. Its entire body looked like it was devoid of skin; it was nothing but bone and muscle, its joints visible and its tissue flexing with every movement. Its face was covered with dark domes in lieu of eyes, its mouth was filled with menacing, arced fangs, and it bore a long tail that ended in a gathering of what looked like _sunflower_ petals. As it saw the quartet, it opened its mouth and _screeched_ , the sound echoing through the wood.

 _ **Bite-Sized Monster Encyclopedia: Hanabake  
**_ _Grows from bulbs and absorbs water and sunlight through the parts of its body that mimic a plant. But its non-vegetative parts are ferocious and hard as steel._

Kairi clenched her fist. "What is that?"

"A creature made with witchcraft," Xion said quickly, her gaze shifting about. "It's on its own. Why is it on its own?"

"Forget why," Sora insisted, "just ice it!"

Xion raised her Key forward, firing a blast of icefire at the hanabake; the blast hit it center-mass and promptly started spreading as the creature lunged forward. Xion quickly leapt aside, and Roxas moved to strike its yet-unfrozen head with his own Keyblade.

He was horrified when the creature closed its fangs on the teeth of the Key; then the ice began to crack, and then _shatter_ , leaving the quartet to leap back. Sora hurled his Key; it collided teeth-first and only served to direct the angry hanabake to charge him. The silver weapon reappeared in his hands, and he quickly caught the angry lunge on the shaft, locking it until Xion charged forward and swung a handful of icy claws into its side. The ice shattered on contact, but it did serve to weaken the creature's focus, allowing Sora to rear it back; then Xion slammed her light Key into its central eye-dome, Roxas knocked it into the air with his dark Key, and Sora hurled his silver weapon after it, knocking it into a sharp flip and causing it to land head-first. Xion launched another blast of icefire at it - and then two more, just to make sure it didn't break free this time - and the hanabake quickly found itself encased in a solid block.

Roxas drove his Keyblade into it, and Kairi was impressed to see _flames_ burning the hanabake's flesh from _inside the ice_ ; by the time the chilled prison had melted, there was no prisoner for it to hold.

"That was cool," Sora admitted.

"Sending a yoko into a forest was _stupid_ ," Roxas muttered. "I can't make contact with _anything_ if a fight starts or I'm going to set the world on fire."

Kairi glanced at her armband, seeing it was blinking. "I suppose I should turn this thing-"

"Shh!" Xion hissed, raising a hand. "You hear that?"

Indeed they did - that same sound of foliage being torn through, three times over.

+x+x+x+

"A hanabake patch..."

The bus driver's quiet observation prompted Y'shtola to sigh, glancing at the receiver upon the table; in short order, it started humming quietly, warning that one of the students had triggered their distress band. "Damnations," she muttered. She quickly reached into her pocket and drew out a cellphone, dialing quickly and raising it to her ear as she turned to the receiver and activated the display. "...Professor Heartilly?"

 _"Shtola, I've told you that you can just call me Rinoa."_

"There's a student party sending a distress signal," Y'shtola continued, "about twenty-five meters due west of your location. Would you be so kind as to retrieve them and terminate the horticulture offending them?"

A sigh from Rinoa's end. _"What did we tell you during the briefing? This is a_ _ **self**_ _-study class."_

"But-!"

 _"I'll get into position,"_ Rinoa insisted. _"We're here to stop them from taking any_ _ **serious**_ _damage. But danger is no less a problem in the human world than it is in ours, and they need to be able to protect themselves. By surviving in a place like this, they learn the skills to handle a harsh world. If they're at serious risk,_ _ **then**_ _we'll move in."_

"Heartilly," Y'shtola snapped, "they're in confrontation with hanabake!"

 _"I presume you've never taken a bullet."_

Y'shtola gave her phone's display a look.

 _"I'm moving out, Shtola,"_ Rinoa assured her. _"Ring Seifer or Squall if another group signals you."_

The freshman teacher hung up at that point, leaving Y'shtola to lower her phone with a sigh.

+x+x+x+

Another trio of hanabake charged out of the bushes, leaving Xion and Roxas to cross their Keys again. Sora quickly hurled his Keyblade at the center one, causing it to stumble and trip up the other three; then he turned quickly to Kairi, who had a solid glare locked onto the creatures. "Kairi, quick. Take off my-"

"No."

Sora blinked. "What?"

Kairi lowered her stance. "Let me."

Roxas and Xion turned around with a look of horror mirrored on their faces. "Kairi, don't-!"

The _crack_ of a breaking chain cut them off, and Kairi charged forward at the hanabake, who all lunged at her. Her left hand slammed a punch into the underside of one creature's jaw, throwing it back into a tree. Another lunged at her, but she only dropped low, letting it collide with the earth next to her before she kicked it in the neck, sending it tumbling to the side. The last one landed a sharp bite on her arm, but she only lashed her arm out of its mouth, tearing her uniform's sleeve in the process - and then, still dripping, slammed the elbow of that arm into its eye-dome before slamming a solid punch into its center mass, throwing it back.

The second one she had attacked leapt at her from behind, biting her in the leg, and she quickly spun around as it dragged her onto her back; a solid kick to the upper jaw loosed its grip, but as she was getting to her feet a slash from the first threw her back. The second launched a full-body tackle at her, throwing her back, and Kairi found herself tumbling across the ground - and over something distressingly _soft_ \- before she collided with a tree.

Xion and Roxas stopped the next charging hanabake on their crossed Keys, and proceeded to keep the creatures busy while Sora charged towards her. "Kairi!" he reprimanded. "What were you thinking!?"

Kairi struggled to right herself. "What...?"

Sora set a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from getting any higher than a sitting position; then his other hand closed around hers, and he brought it up to his crown and closed her fingers on it.

"Wait here."

Then he swept it away, and the chain loop disconnected from the single links as a surge of power ripped up around him. His hair went dark, only to be ignited with a fiery orange that didn't quite reach the tip, and his eyes turned vibrant gold before flooding with crimson. A fang poked out from between his lips as he released Kairi's hand; his fingernails were lengthened into claws, the key cuts digging in from the side, as he got to his feet.

"And don't spill anything."

The vampire turned around, and the air around him _warped_ from the power he was exuding as he charged forward; Roxas and Xion quickly leapt back as he drove one hand of claws into a hanabake's neck and hurled it into another before kicking the third in the tail. With a sigh, Roxas started towards Kairi, who had a most concerned and frightened gaze locked on the crown in her hand.

"Hey," Roxas prompted, "it's alright. The same thing happened to me."

Kairi raised her gaze. "What?"

Roxas chuckled, kneeling down before her and raising his own hand - the chains he was hiding under his sleeve were just barely visible past the cuff of his sleeve. "Monstrous blood - it makes you stronger than you should be. And a holy lock stops it from going crazy... but it can't keep it all down, all the time. And a vampire - the strongest of monsters? You were punching Kyonshi across the Melmond graveyard, I can't blame you for feeling strong about that.

"But then you spend some time in the human world. The hardest hit you can take is a projectile through your shoulder - because your reflexes are too fast for it to hit you center mass. The strongest substance under your hand is a brick wall - because punching downwards towards the old concrete is not exactly practical in a fight. Most of the time, you're getting shouldered by humans who are in a hurry, and that's about it. And you get _used_ to that. So when you come back to the world of monsters, you're not used to what a monster can take - and what they can dish out." Roxas shook his head. "It's like playing a rhythm game. You can rock it out on an Ultimate Score, but you trying and play with some friends who aren't at your level..."

"And you get your ass knocked back to Basic."

Roxas' expression fell, and he glared sideways and upwards at the vampire who was standing there with a smirk on his face. "Thank you, Van," Roxas snapped, his voice thick with sarcasm. "Yes, thank you for that completely unwarranted insult."

Van glared at him. "She tackled a bouquet of hanabake!" he reprimanded. "Don't tell me that was unwarranted!" He held out a hand to Kairi. "Come on, snack tray, get up."

Kairi managed to close her hand on his, and the vampire pulled her to her feet, taking his crown back as he did so. The loop was halfway back to the lone chain when a rush through the bushes drew their attention.

Xion was surprised to see a familiar teacher charge out of the leaves. "Professor Heartilly?"

"Are you all okay?" Rinoa asked. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. This place is a maze."

Van smirked. "Well," he observed, "you're not _wrong_."

His voice had a pointed undertone of accusation to it; yet no one had the chance to ask on it further before he joined the chains to seal his rosario.

+x+x+x+

"Oh dear."

The self-study class was at its conclusion, and Y'shtola was judging the collections of all the students - less out of any grading intentions and more out of curiosity for how the students had fared for their _given_ task. Most of the students had collected at least one variety of edible forestry, although relatively few had succeeded in gathering three; Sora, Kairi, Roxas, and Xion were the last to be evaluated, and their bag currently contained a _mush_.

Y'shtola turned to the quartet, who all looked rather embarrassed at what had become of their collection. "If I were to guess," she mused, "it was one of you four who issued that distress signal?"

"Yes," Kairi confirmed, "that was me. I'm sorry we-"

"Don't!" Y'shtola insisted, silencing her. "Do not apologize for placing your own lives, let alone your safety, over the maintenance of your rations. Even in a life-or-death situation, one would rather spend one night undernourished than eat at the cost of seeing one of their own fall to the wilds." She glanced at the mess. "That being said, this is rather less-than-evaluable... but as promised, I cannot penalize you for having been in an emergent situation."

The students were starting to load into the bus, and Professors Heartilly and Leonhart - who had been on recovery for the self-study class, along with the already-departed Professor Almasy - were judging the students' _actual_ performance. "Decision-making skills, check," Rinoa mused. "Bonding with friends, check. The self-study project was successful, and most of them can even provide for themselves in the forest."

Leon chuckled. "No serious injuries, only six with minor injuries," he observed. "Tell DiZ to keep it on the curriculum."

As the last of the students boarded, he struck the back of the bus with an open palm, prompting the driver to pull out and head back towards the school.

* * *

Draco: My techinical difficulties with the Doc Manager were _exactly_ what I needed to get back into a Kingdom mood - and then promptly overstayed their welcome. Sorry for the horrendous delay.


	3. Feathers of Vermilion

Draco: Seriously getting interested in a whole 'nother series on the grounds that the main character's [initial] weapons [in the first game] are named after a song I _really_ like.

On a related note, I found myself in an awkward situation where I want to mention Super Smash Bros, which is compounded by the fact that Cloud is a fighter in _WiiU/3DS_. I'm gonna take the Comic Irregulars' strategy for this one: provide alternate occurrences to compensate. In K+C's canon ([quote]Can you use the term 'is canon' when referring to game elements present in a fanfic?[/quote]), the Wave 5 DLC for _WiiU/3DS_ was Tales of Symphonia; Lloyd Irving as the new fighter, Derris-Kharlan as the new stage, and an Emil Wig/Outfit for Mii Swordfighters instead of a Chocobo hat. And the Lloyd Wig/Outfit in Wave 3 was instead a Fused Shadow headgear. Not sure it's gonna become relevant (I certainly hope it's not going to become relevant, I don't think I can write a whole Smash moveset), but you know, just in case.

Oh, also, as promised, here's my warning. The 0-ers start showing up in this chapter. Nothing particularly spoilery yet, but I did my best to know absolutely nothing about the game so I thought I'd give similarly-minded individuals a warning.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Feathers of Vermilion**

"Riku, Riku, break it!"

"Break _this_!"

First weekend after the Self-Study class; Kairi opened the door to Sora's dorm room to find him, Riku, Roxas, and Xion sitting before an impressively sized TV. A controller was in each of their hands; Riku's was plugged into something plugged into a Wii U next to the screen, and Sora was holding the GamePad. Kairi rolled her eyes and threw the door open as she stepped in, prompting Naminé to follow behind her as something shattered and a deep _swoop_ echoed from the TV.

 _"Smashing!"_

Riku gave a horrified yell as every character on the screen - save for one - was slowed to a crawl. "You son of a-!"

"Face it," Xion taunted, "you two are finished."

Kairi closed the door as Naminé approached the players from behind. "Is that Bayonetta?"

" **Gyaah!** " Roxas nearly threw his controller as he spun round; Sora, Riku, and Xion offered similar - but faster - glances over their shoulders before turning back to the screen, and Roxas shot the artist a glare. "Leviath, Naminé."

" _Rokusasu_ , the Witch Time!"

Roxas spun back to the screen in time to watch his Final Smash dissipate half-finished. "No!" he yelled. The gunslinger quickly got an Electroshock to the back, which prompted Roxas to curse under his breath as Riku chuckled.

"You guys have been Smashing?" Kairi accused. "We've been looking for you for an hour."

"Sorry, that's my fault," Sora insisted, his Link dropping a bomb on Roxas' Bayonetta. "Roxas and Riku were arguing over something in Preternatural and I made a stupid 'Settle it in Smash' joke."

Naminé glanced at him. "Arguing over what?"

Roxas was the one who answered. "You remember Niju Blade? We saw her in Sweet Fang with a guy. Riku thought she was on a date. I thought it was a good idea to insult his dating history."

 _"Shorrryuken!"_

Riku's Dark Pit got a flying uppercut to the jaw from Xion's Ryu, and Sora scoffed angrily under his breath. "I still can't believe you can handle that guy."

"Oh, come on," the snowgirl protested. "How many fighting games have you played?

"You count the 3DS version as a separate game?"

At once, Kairi, Riku, Naminé, Roxas, and Xion replied, "No."

Sora shot a sideways glare at them while his Link was getting thrown. "Then, three," he replied. "And I stopped playing Melee when Cloud learned how to wavedash."

"No _proper_ fighting games?" Roxas asked.

"I play Smash for a reason," Sora insisted. "Nothing in its right mind is that complicated in two dimensions."

 _"Five! Four! Three! Two! One! TIME!"_

Sora swept his GamePad over his head like he wanted to throw it at something as the battle concluded; he and Riku had lost. The werewolf set his controller down and turned back to Kairi and Naminé - and away from the Blue Team victory screen. "So, why were you two looking for us?"

Kairi rolled her eyes as Sora set his GamePad in its charging dock and started shutting the system down. "You guys ever heard of the Fair Game Bar and Poker House?"

Roxas and Xion exchanged glances and had to fight back a fit of giggles, earning them looks from the other four. "Yeah, we know it," Xion replied. "Luxord ran it."

"Organization XIII?" Riku asked.

"Yeah," Roxas confirmed. "The bar's got a path to the bus stop and the tunnel." He turned back to Kairi. "But the headmaster dealt with the Organization. We saw the public building in Preternatural. Someone bought it and hasn't done anything with it."

"Wait, what?"

Naminé raised an eyebrow "Public building?"

"They've got two buildings," Xion explained. "The public building in Preternatural, and the Members' Building isolated on the school grounds."

"Oh, there's two of them." Naminé shook her head. "Anyways, Leon told us about it. Someone's renovated it. They're running a casino... and something else."

Sora turned to them. "Something... else?"

+x+x+x+

"Something else."

Roxas and Xion had been to the Members' Building several times, both as customers and on Organization missions. It had been a rather dark structure with representations of the tarot suits - sword, staff, coin, cup - over the building's name, over the door (which looked like a card itself). The building that was now in its place was significantly larger; its walls were now vibrant crimson, and the building's name was imposed upon a bird that looked like it was made of flames.

 **Wings of Fire  
Casino & Combat Center**

"A combat center... and a casino?" Xion asked incredulously.

"I thought Leon was joking," Naminé admitted. "But no, that's really what it is."

Roxas glanced at the door. It, too, had a bird of flames upon it, this one behind a red multifaceted diamond. The slot that used to be used for membership entry had been ripped out, and the wall was visibly uneven where it had been. "Well," he mused, "shall we go in?"

"Might as well," Riku observed.

Sora stepped forward first, drawing the door open and stepping inside. The first room inside, decorated in red and gold, was very obviously that of a gambling establishment; visible from the doorway were roulette, blackjack, and poker tables, along with one that appeared to have a clock face on it. A counter sat against the far wall, with a door to either side of it. Two people who looked like they ought be students - dressed in what were decidedly _not_ Yokai uniforms, with prominent crimson capes and a jeweled ring on the right hand - were sitting at the clock-face table; one of them was a girl with shoulder-length brown hair, playing a gentle melody on a flute, while the other was a boy with short, vibrant blonde hair and a pair of glasses, reading a book. As Sora stepped inside, a light chime echoed through the room, followed shortly by five more as Xion, Roxas, Naminé, Riku, and Kairi followed suit; the bookworm and flautist both turned towards the door.

"Oh, hello!" the girl called. "I didn't think anyone was going to come so soon."

The boy drew his glasses off his face, flicking them shut and hooking them on his collar, before closing his book and marking the page with the dust jacket. "Welcome to Wings of Fire," he greeted, getting to his feet as the girl did the same. "How can we help you?"

"Um, hi," Sora reciprocated. "What is this place?"

"A little something to play, and something a little more serious," the boy explained. "We heard this school had a shortage of both. You can try your luck at the tables if you like flirting with Lady Luck; we're open to everyone. If you're more a fighter than a lover, Deuce here can show you around. We'll show you how to fight just about anything."

Kairi blinked. "Wait, this really is a fight club? That wasn't just an advertising gimmick?"

Both the flautist, Deuce, and the boy glared at her as she said that.

"I'm sorry, that was rude," Kairi insisted. "It's just... Why would you have a combat training center in the same establishment as a casino?"

Deuce angled her head. "What is gambling?" she countered.

Kairi raised an eyebrow. "It's about making money off a chance."

"You're right," the reader agreed, "it's about chance - but not only that, it's about adapting to a situation you can't forsee. It's about handling unfavourable situations, and making the best of any advantage you might have."

This earned him a chuckle from Kairi as she stepped forward. "Alright, deal me in."

Sora clicked his tongue. "I'll see what kinda fights you've got."

"Seconded," Naminé agreed.

"Third...ed," Riku stumbled.

Roxas and Xion both nodded. "Done and done," they said at once.

"Alright," Deuce prompted, "come with me."

She led the others further in, and the boy beckoned Kairi to the tables; as he turned, Kairi noticed a name on his shirt that read _Ace_. "So, what's your game?" he asked. "Poker? Blackjack? Roulette? Chronobind?"

Kairi bit her lip. "Well, on one hand, I can't play poker to save my life," she admitted. "In fact, last time I played poker actually endangered my life in new and exciting ways. And on the other hand, I've played _way_ too much blackjack. But I've never even _heard_ of Chronobind."

"I can give you the tutorial, if you like, before you start buying chips," Ace replied, starting towards the clock-faced table - Kairi noticed him press a button on the underside of the rim as he rounded it. "But it's best a four-player game, so if your friends are all fighters you'll have to wait for a couple of ours."

"House staff?"

"More or less."

+x+x+x+

"Improvised weaponry?"

The doors beside the counter led to a long hallway with four other doors, each marked with an explanation - Deuce had simply lead them down the hallway and pointed out each of the doors. As Naminé stepped into the first door, she found three figures lounging inside, all in the same red-caped uniform as Ace and Deuce had been wearing - and all in the same age range. One was a girl with silver hair, done up in a ponytail that made spikes past the band; one was a boy with messy hair of dirty blonde and a few light scars on his face; and one was a girl with bright red hair in ringlets and a long braid.

At Naminé's incredulous call, the three of them turned towards her, getting to their feet. "Something weird about that, hey?" the boy asked.

Naminé shook her head, glancing at the walls. They were covered in all the _strangest_ implements - it would have seemed perverted or nightmarish if it wasn't for the sign on the door. "That's just not the first thing that came to mind when they mentioned 'fights'."

"You can't always afford to have a blade on you," the silver-haired girl asked; her nametag read _Sice_. "Improv gear is better than no gear at all."

Remembering the number of times she'd had to improvise with her magic because there wasn't something familiar around, Naminé only let her gaze fall. "I know what you mean."

The redhead, whose nametag read _Cinque_ , giggled lightly. "And if you're using something you just picked up," she added, "you're probably either smacking somebody with something _really_ heavy..."

"...or runnin' a big stick into their asses, yo," finished the boy, whose name seemed to be _Nine_.

Naminé's gaze drifted across the walls, and she came across something decidedly more _weaponly_ on the far wall. "Or, you know, cutting them in half like a freaking _reaper_ ," she protested.

Nine followed her gaze and then immediately turned back. "You think a scythe's gonna help you, hey?"

"You get the business end of one of these things a couple times and _then_ tell me a scythe isn't a weapon," Naminé countered.

"When it's _made_ as a weapon, Sice agreed, "yeah, it'll hurt." She started towards the wall on Naminé's right, beckoning for her to follow. "But if you're just picking it up, a farmer's scythe is worse than useless." She picked something off the wall and turned back. "Here, this is a better choice."

"A _wooden_ baseball bat is a better choice?" Naminé asked, taking the home-runner regardless.

"Even if it's made of wood," Cinque argued, "it's still gonna hurt someone if you smash 'em in the head!"

Naminé had to admit the weight was comparable to _bokuto_ , but glancing on the same wall revealed something that looked a little more appropriate. "Wouldn't the _metal pole_ be a better idea?"

"Nuh-uh," Cinque argued, running her hand over it. "It's too smooth. If you swing it too hard, it'll fly out of your hands."

Nine stepped up as Naminé held her bat in both hands. "If you're gonna grab a weapon on the fly," he explained, "you gotta figure out what'll work best, yo. And if you gotta pick between landin' a good hit and gettin' a good grip, hey, go for the grip."

"A lot of small hits do you more favours than one big shot," Sice summed up.

"Alright, then," Naminé replied. "So, is that all you guys do? A lecture on improv weapons?"

Sice only chuckled - but it seemed to be a _menacing_ chuckle. "Well, if you think that'll do you any good," she countered. Reaching for the wall, "But I think you'll find it's a better idea to get more of a... _crash_ course."

Her hand came away with a long, thin figure that looked like it used to be an antenna from something.

"This won't hurt if you don't panic."

+x+x+x+

"You guys have a _shooting range?_ "

Sora took the second door from the entrance Deuce had shown them, and found himself in a long room with thick-shielded shot zones; the walls were covered in more firearms than Solid Snake could carry and enough bows for a whole chain of Links. Three more capes were waiting for him; a boy with blonde hair that drifted about his face, a girl with short, flared red hair, and a built guy with a genuine blonde mullet. At Sora's incredulity, the mullet guy - whose nametag labelled him as _King_ \- only shook his head. "You don't think these things are just point-and-click, do you?"

"Not the bows, no," Sora admitted.

"A gun isn't any better," countered the redhead, who seemed to be named _Cater_. "Yeah, they go faster, but a bullet still drops the further it goes." She drew a pistol off the wall, aiming it down one of the ranges. "And if you don't watch out for the recoil, you're gonna have a broken nose and a shot going _nowhere_ it's supposed to."

She popped the weapon back like she'd just fired it, prompting Sora to hum curiously. "What if I hold it sideways?"

His crown promptly slapped him in the face.

"Now you just sound stupid," Cater reprimanded.

"Quite," agreed the last boy, whose tag read _Trey_. "You see, that fashion of holding a firearm actually originated from-"

Cater cuffed him in the shoulder with her empty hand. "Trey, we talked about this."

King took a revolver off the wall. "You know how gun sights work?" he asked.

"Yeah," Sora mused, "you line 'em up and pull, right?"

"Right," Cater confirmed. "But that only works because you've got it up-and-down, a person _stands_ up-and-down, and _gravity_ goes up-and-down."

Sora swept his hand side to side before him like he was underlining something. "So if they're lying left and right..."

"Then you have an advantage against them," Trey replied, "and little reason to expend a shot unless you know that fighting at close range is going to prove counterproductive."

"If you've got a gun," Cater insisted, "keep a count on your bullets. Don't waste 'em if you can take the guy down without 'em."

+x+x+x+

"Tell me you're not _actually_ teaching hand-to-hand combat."

The third door looked like it lead straight to the fight club's room in the school building; the walls were lined with punching bags, and both a boxing ring and a sumo ring were set up. Roxas' query as he and Xion stepped in drew the attention of the room's occupants; a boy with very short brown hair and a girl with face-draping silver. The boy only shook his head. "Power doesn't mean much if you don't know how to apply it."

Xion shook her head. "Half the students in this school carry a _blade_ on them," she reprimanded. "Administration actually prefers weapon combat to use of monstrous power."

The girl, whose nametag read _Seven_ , only shrugged. She wore no cape, but the lapel of her uniform was the same crimson as the mantles worn by the rest "Call this the fallback option," she insisted. "You can't always rely on a weapon like you can your own hands.

Roxas glanced at his right hand, closing his fingers and then opening them again. "I know what you mean."

"And if you're gonna fall back," added the boy, apparently named _Eight_ , "better you learn how to do it here than in a matter of life or death."

"Hand-to-hand combat doesn't just mean fistfighting," Seven insisted. "It means knowing the best way to use your body in a fight - weapon or no weapon."

"Are you telling me to get a lower collar?" Xion accused.

"...I'm not going to answer that."

Eight shook his head. "The biggest problem with a weapon is that you focus on the blade," he insisted. "You need to use the whole of your body, as best you can."

"Why not just add another weapon?" Roxas asked.

Xion gave him an elbow to the ribs that had him stumbling.

Seven and Eight were both facepalming. "There's more _to you_ than your weapon," Seven insisted, "regardless of how many you have."

"You ever seen those fight scenes where the brawler wipes the floor with someone who's got a knife?" Eight asked.

"More often than I would like," Xion admitted.

"Pay attention," Eight continued, "and you'll notice that the guy with the knife is always trying to get the knife to cut - even when he's got a clear opening for a punch."

"Focusing on the blade."

"Exactly."

+x+x+x+

"Isn't offering to train swordplay kind of... pretentious?"

The fourth and final door (not counting a stairwell at the end of the hall that read _Staff Only_ ) lead to a simple enough room - a ring was marked on the floor, several chairs were scattered about, and what looked like a scoreboard was on one wall. The cape-clad staff inside - a boy with coiffed, dark blonde hair and a black-haired girl with glasses, both of whom had sheathed blades at their sides - both turned at Riku's comment as he closed the door behind him. "Huh?" asked the boy, whose name appeared to be _Jack_. "What are you talkin' about?"

"Swordfighting is simple," Riku replied. "You don't need to show somebody how to do that."

" _Simple?_ "

The meganekko's sharp retaliation only prompted Jack to smirk, turning away. "Uh-oh," he mused, "you got Queen mad."

The girl - whose name tag did in fact read _Queen_ \- approached the ring, drawing her weapon; a straight sword with a double-edged blade thin enough to fit the rapier-esque pose she took with it. "Sword. Stance. Now. Let's see what you can do when you have only your blade to rely on."

Riku smirked and raised a hand at his side; a dark mist flowed from it, necrous voltage dancing around his palm as his dragon-winged Soul Eater nestled into his grip. He quickly stepped into the ring, and Jack raised a hand with a count of three; then, in a voice that implied these guys had a tendency to 'settle it in Smash' themselves, he called the count.

"Three, two, one, GO!"

The werewolf swung his blade with a diagonal swing inward, which Queen simply pulled her sword out of the way of. Riku quickly charged forward with an outward horizontal slash, but Queen only hopped back; he quickly grabbed the weapon in both hands and brought it in an earthward strike, prompting her to step aside and slap him in the leg with the flat of her blade. A low growl emerged from Riku as he turned around, going for another downward swing, but Queen took a single step back to evade; his follow-up was quickly interrupted by an upward thrust to the flat of Soul Eater, and Riku hand no chance to react before her longsword hooked against the back of the blade.

A quick circular motion dragged his weapon out of his grip, and Queen landed a solid kick to the stomach that launched him out of the ring. To add insult to injury, Jack didn't even bother with the voice this time; he only chuckled and raised his hand with a call of "And we have a winner!"

Queen quickly reached up and adjusted her glasses. "Predictable moves," she reprimanded. "You telegraph your attacks too much. And you always go for the same blows. There's no variety to your attacks."

Riku roughly got to his feet as Soul Eater vanished. "So, what," he demanded, "you're gonna tell me how to swing my sword?"

Jack shook his head. "You really don't know how swordfighting works, huh?"

"Swordplay isn't something you can instruct, step-by-step," Queen reprimanded. "If it follows a strict guideline, it's not combat - it's a competition."

"But you _can_ tell someone what you're doing wrong," Jack added. "Queen wasn't talking about your style, she was talking about your pattern."

Riku raised an eyebrow. "My... pattern?"

"Or rather, there being a pattern at all," Queen corrected. "In-swing, out-swing, overhead. You always went for the same three blows. That's easy to notice - and easy to exploit. If you don't vary your attacks, you leave yourself wide open."

"So that's what everyone's been talking about..."

+x+x+x+

"Clockout!"

Ace groaned as Kairi declared the round; she had picked up the rules of Chronobind pretty quickly, dropped a hundred-dollar bill on the counter - Deuce, having made her way back, supplied her with casino coins at ten cents a chip - and was currently running Ace and the hired help dry. "Full Bind," he protested. "I think Lady Luck is a misnomer if she's flirting with you."

One of his called-in players - a petite girl named Rem, with shoulder-length brown hair - turned to him at that comment. "Father Fortune?"

"Or Old Man Money," commented the other - a boy who went by Machina, with dark hair kept long. "I'm out of chips. We'll have to break the table."

"And that's another two thousand chips for the lead seat," Ace mused. "You're gonna run Mother broke at this rate."

Kairi glanced at the pile of chips in her corner of the table. "You know what?" she mused. "I don't think I will."

"Huh?"

"Give my hundred back, and keep the change," she assured him. "I don't want to be the only one who gets to enjoy this. This is fun."

Ace chuckled at her optimism. "I think we can do that," he mused.

He swept Kairi's chips to the side of the table, where they rattled into a sorter underneath; then he started towards the counter, leaving her at the table with Machina and Rem. After a moment, Kairi turned to the remaining staff. "Don't take this the wrong way," she insisted, "but you two look kind of... awkward."

Machina blinked, surprised. "How so?"

"This whole place gives off a vibe like a well-oiled machine," Kairi elaborated. "But you two... you're like outsiders. Friends to the family that the others are part of."

"Well, that's not just a look," Rem replied. "The others _are_ family."

Kairi was _not_ expecting that. "Really?"

"As far as we know, anyway."

"They've known each other their whole lives," Machina explained. "We'd met them not long before they got the call to take over this place. Thing is... they needed a couple extra hands."

Kairi glanced between the two of them. "And they asked you to come along?"

"Yeah, we're on good terms," Rem confirmed. "I don't think they're exactly forward with all their secrets, but they give honest answers when we ask questions. They're good people, they are."

A light chuckle from the human girl. "Well," she mused, "if you're working with them, I guess they're not doing anything dark and dirty like the last ones."

"Huh?"

Kairi didn't get the chance to respond before Ace's voice called from over her shoulder, "Your winnings." She turned around as he handed her a hundred-dollar bill - one which was decidedly newer than the one she had dropped on the counter. "You gonna grab your friends before you take off?"

"That won't be necessary." Riku's aggravated tone drew the attention of all four of them; the werewolf was stepping out from one of the doors looking very battered, followed by a tired - but unscathed - Roxas and Xion, a joyful Sora, and a frustrated Naminé.

"This place is fun," Sora mused. "I think we're gonna be back."

Naminé and Riku at once protested. "No way in Pandaemonium."

"I don't know," Xion argued, "I could get used to working out at this place."

"This isn't a gym," Deuce reprimanded. "Once you stop showing _strategic_ improvement, Eight's not gonna let you back in."

Roxas shrugged. "Making strategic improvement is going to be enough of a workout for her."

Xion elbowed him again.

Kairi only laughed, getting to her feet. "Well, guys, shall we head back?"

"Why do I have the feeling you've got an ulterior motive for that?" Ace countered.

"Maybe you consider 'spreading the word that there's a fun new place on school grounds' an ulterior motive," Kairi reprimanded. "Don't tell me you guys don't want more business."

This earned her a laugh.

The six of them made their way out of the building, starting back towards the dorms.

Not ten seconds into their walk, Kairi turned to them. "What do you guys think?"

"They don't seem like a bad bunch," Sora admitted. "But there is something... _off_ about them."

Riku turned. "What do you mean?"

Sora shook his head. "I'm not sure. I felt the weirdest sensations from them. It wasn't _monstrous_. They felt... _human_. But they also felt... _more_ than human."

"Magi-human."

Naminé's comment drew everyone's attention. "What?"

"They're magi-human," the witch replied. "You remember Floe? She was the same. Humans instilled with magic from an outside source. They seem human to monstrous senses, or even magical detection, but they have magic of their own. That would have been what you felt."

Xion hummed. "Magi-human, huh?"

+x+x+x+

"Out of the way!"

A motorcycle tore down the highway outside of the city of Altair, chased by a series of police vehicles and a helicopter. Civilian vehicles were all pulling out of the way as the biker - clad in a blend of stark white and bloody red, with a proper motorist's helmet that hid his face - wove between them, maintaining a significant lead on his pursuers.

The chase was approaching a pitch-black tunnel at this point, and emerging from that tunnel was a heavy-duty pickup truck; the box of that truck was loaded with poorly-packed painting supplies. The biker was lined up perfectly for a head-on collision, and the truck's driver quickly swerved to the side, causing cans of paint to fly out of the back and towards the chase. Most of them slammed into the pavement and burst, and the biker - who ended up fishtailing after trying to swerve in the same direction as the trucker and then quickly redirecting the other way - continued into the tunnel. The police vehicles chased after him, leaving the helicopter to fly over and prepare to intercept at the other end.

To everyone's horror - and several foul utterances - the first thing the pilot saw come out the tunnel was a police car, with a can of orange paint lodged in the grill.

+x+x+x+

With the next morning came an announcement half of the school body had been waiting for: Yokai's club activities resumed today. While the freshmen (and anyone in the older classes new to the school) spent a time looking over the club list, most of the students from the sophomore class up were searching for their locales from last year. Kairi and company were rather surprised be interrupted by Professor Leonhart on their way to his classroom; the freshman teacher informed them that the News Club now had a clubroom entirely their own.

And what a clubroom it was.

"Oh, man," Sora groaned, taking a seat at a massive table with more surface area than a whole class of desks. "I can already feel the work getting easier."

"Don't get too comfy," Leon reprimanded. "We got this place because you guys were working hard last year, and that means you're gonna have to work _harder_ to keep it this year."

Naminé shot him a look. "Is that why you sent us to Wings of Fire yesterday?"

Everyone turned to Leon as he smirked. "I've never been praised for my secrecy," he admitted. "Yes, I was hoping the casino would be a good topic for your first issue of the new year."

"Well, that shouldn't be a problem," Sora admitted. "I mean, we might have to swing by for a photo shoot, but that place is the _best_ way to kick off Yokai Times for this year."

As the others murmured their agreement, Kairi glanced at the doorway, half expecting someone to walk in. "So... no Setzer this year?" she asked, turning to Leon.

Riku turned to her. "Um, Kairi-"

"Hey, is asking gonna kill me?" she countered.

"Not in this room, anyway," Leon admitted. "The headmaster was none-too-pleased when he found out about Setzer's whole... shtick. If he shows up on the school grounds again, he's gonna get a taste of Yokai administration when he's angry."

The entire news club shuddered.

A familiar lion's roar prompted the professor to draw out his cell phone. "This is Leon." A moment's pause. "Rinoa, slow down. He said _what?_ ...Okay, I'm on my way."

As he hung up, Sora shot him a look. "Something the matter?"

"I'm not sure," Leon muttered, "but I'm not _allowed_ to let you guys help me." Beckoning to a cabinet at the far end of the room; "Supplies are in there. I don't need to give you the briefing, do I?"

"Not even a little bit," Roxas assured him.

Leon left at that, leaving the news club to get to work.

+x+x+x+

"Now how did _you_ sneak onto the grounds?"

Darkness in Zero - or so he was known - stood at the entrance to a wrecked building on school grounds. The structure had been destroyed for ages, and had seen several uses by the student body (a few party streamers were still hanging around from last year's use); but unbeknownst to most on the school grounds, it held access to a winding labyrinth which connected to several areas on the school grounds - including the makeshift airship hangar used by Setzer Gabianni, an old dungeon where Kadaj Jenova had tried to have several students killed, and a former pseudo-yakuza hideout.

Standing there was a man in biker's garb - and splattered with a thick, wet layer of red.

"You're talkin' like you know me," the man protested. "But I can't much say I know you."

The headmaster only scoffed. "A man in charge of an institution such as this must keep himself well informed of outlaws - such that he might hand them over to the appropriate authorities if they should come into his purview."

"What's a 'purview'?" the biker snapped. "And why are you talkin' like that?"

DiZ had no chance to respond before a voice behind him yelled, "Headmaster!" The biker glanced past him in time to see a man and a woman charging forward - the woman had a projectile weapon in hand (or close to it), while the man was wielding what looked like a massive sword.

"Oh, hell with this," the man growled, turning away.

" **Stop.** "

That single word from the headmaster's mouth seemed to make the air _shake_ , and the biker went still. Rinoa took that opportunity to fire her chakram at the supports for the doorway of the structure. The collision sent rubble falling before it, barring the doors, and the outlaw barely had time to turn around before Leon slammed his blade into the door, an inch from the biker's neck.

Anyone would know they were outmatched at this point; the biker only snickered from beneath his helmet, his gaze going to the trail of red he had left on his way here.

"Alright, I'll come quietly."

* * *

Draco: Imitating Master Hand is easy. Imitating Jack Al-Rashia is easy. Trying to imitate Jack Al-Rashia _imitating Master Hand_ is a massive difficulty spike.

On second thought, I _might_ be able to write Lloyd a Smash moveset if I sat down for an hour with Symphonia and Pit's SmashWiki page, but I have enough trouble writing characters playing Smash with the actual roster. That's why I glossed it over. If I throw Irving replacing Strife into the mix, everything gets even harder.

This isn't a horrendous anticlimax/red herring, by the way. This is a cliffhanger. I realize it kind of looks otherwise.


	4. Claws of Azure

Draco: You know, writing a whole Smash moveset - not just specials and a Final Smash - might be a nice mental exercise. I might give that a try next time I'm having technical difficulties. Not Lloyd, though, I haven't played Symphonia in a good while. Which is probably not a good thing, because I _think_ I'm on Fooji Mountain and I _know_ I'm on my third straight run for GRADE and I keep overwriting my clear saves. **PRE-SUBMIT EDIT** Guess what I started experiencing halfway through writing this chapter? Frickin' piece of system. **END PRE-SUBMIT EDIT**

Knowing - or at least inferring - that there's a good reason for just about everything I even remotely dislike about it (and acknowledging that I am 'annoyed by the most random shit'), there are exactly three things I would change in Super Smash Bros. for WiiU/3DS.  
-Firstly, in both versions, I would negate the ability to get multiple copies of custom specials or Mii Fighter costume parts.  
-Secondly, in the 3DS version, I would enable the ability to choose which Smash Run final battles would not occur, the same way you can choose which stages don't get picked when you select Random.  
-And thirdly, in the WiiU version, I would enable the ability to chose CPU opponent Miis for Smash Tour, because I hate seeing the bland-faced guest Miis when I have like twenty of my own on my Mii Maker shelf.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Claws of Azure**

 _"Alright. I'll come quietly."_

Those four words rumbled about the mind of Squall Leonhart as he arrived at his freshman homeroom the next day. The haste with which their target had surrendered - he whom DiZ had deigned trouble enough to call in both Leon and Rinoa - gave him pause.

With several days set for club activities, homeroom was simply a matter of asking for any freshman students who had settled their club choices; then he made his way to the news clubroom. Kairi, Sora, Riku, and Xion were all hard at work for their start-of-year issue of _Yokai Times_ \- and though Leon had an idea as to where the other two were, he nonetheless was obligated to ask, "Where are Roxas and Naminé?"

"Wings of Fire," Riku replied in confirmation. "One day's meeting of fourteen people doesn't give you the best artistic reference. Naminé said she still hadn't decided whether to do a group shot or multiple small pieces."

Leon sighed. "I know you guys have kind-of free reign during the club kick-off," he admitted, "but you're not actually allowed to go to Preternatural Street or anything like that. Could one of you go get them?"

"I'll let him know," Xion mused. "Does the fight club still have a leaky fire shower?"

"Come on, the school's been totally revamped. They're not even-"

The freshman teacher went _dead quiet_ when he realized why, exactly, she wanted to know about a leaky fire shower. The fight club was only about three rooms down the hall; well within freezing range for an abominable snowgirl like Xion. The gradual dripping of a slightly faulty pipe - if left unnoticed - would provide more than enough liquid for anything a snow fairy wanted to do should the need arise - like an ice doll.

She could literally do it with her hands tied.

"Sonovabitch."

+x+x+x+

"Not trying to be rude..."

Ace looked up from his book to find Roxas stepping out of the back room, with an expression that implied he had spent a few rounds with Seven and Eight again. "You guys looks more like you should be taking Leonhart's classes than running a casino."

The bookworm pulled off his glasses. "Who says we can't do both?"

"Huh?"

"Well, not Leonhart's," he corrected. "Rem and Machina are in Trepe's sophomore class, but the rest of us are in Heartilly's freshman class."

Roxas crossed his arms. "Then shouldn't you be in the school picking out a club by now?"

"We run Wings of Fire instead," Deuce corrected from behind him, causing him to turn. "Mother pulled a few strings for us. We put more hours in running this place than you guys do in your school clubs. And apparently you guys were short a casino, so it all worked out."

"Point," Roxas admitted. Glancing around; "Where's Naminé?"

"Left a while ago," Ace replied. "Said she got her sketches done. She's pretty good with a pencil, isn't she?"

"You don't know the half of it," Roxas countered. "Well, I'd better head after her. _Shi-oh_ 's gonna have my ass if she gets back and I'm still getting kicked."

He stepped out of the building with a groan, glancing around. As it had been during Luxord's tenure as housemaster, it was a good walk between the gambling establishment and the school - plenty of exercise, on its own. However, on their way here, Roxas had noticed something... _off_. Naminé's magic had turned up nothing, but that had only left him more suspicious.

After all, ice is simply water made cold - on its own, nothing particularly monstrous.

Sure enough, he was hardly sixty seconds away from Wings of Fire when a familiar chill draped him, and a hand connected with his shoulder. "And 'ere's the other one," mused a voice in his ear. "I was wondering when you'd show up."

"Where is she?" Roxas demanded, not even turning around.

"Well, aren't we feisty?" the voice taunted. "Don't worry your pretty 'ead about it. She's alive, for now." A knife was raised to his neck. "But that'll depend on you, won't it?"

Roxas sighed and drew off his gloves, wishing now that he had picked fingerless ones at the start of the year. "Right, then."

The back of his knuckle collided with the blade - and the blade _steamed_ , the top half dividing and falling away. The attempted mugger barely had time to react before Roxas turned around and punched him in the nose.

Or rather, the visor; this guy was in full biker's gear, and wearing a face-concealing helmet. The blow was hard enough to send cracks across the head - and hot enough to leave a steaming imprint where the blow connected - but the ice doll held up, skidding back and taking a defensive stance as his hands warped into cold blue edges. Roxas barely gave him a chance to react; flames rose up from his cranium, freezing over with crimson ice as they took the form of fox's ears upon his head, and he swept his hand before him, trailing fire - just briefly.

"For future refence," he reprimanded, "ice dolls aren't usually durable enough to mug anyone stronger than a human nerd unless the snowgirl's there with it." He looked him over. "So, you made after her teammate, or just a random face she remembers?"

"A face?" the ice doll demanded. "What makes you think there's even a face under 'ere?"

"What?"

"That 'eadmaster with the bandages and belts fell for the same cheap trick," the biker mused. "With a proper 'elmet, she doesn't even need a face. She can give it any voice she wants. And with enough water, she ain't gonna run out. Which means your little witch of a girlfriend ain't gonna stand a chance."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "You think a student of Yokai Academy isn't familiar with what a snow fairy can do?"

The doll only chuckled. "I think you'll find there's no shortage of ingenuity where ice is involved."

"Get down!"

The gruff voice caused the biker to turn, and Roxas quickly leapt back, his fox ears shattering. What looked like a _handgun magazine_ was spinning through the air, and the ice doll had no chance to react before the firing of such a weapon sounded. A shot connected with the magazine, and it _detonated_ , causing the biker to break into a cascade of suddenly-colourless shards. King was standing there with a handgun in one hand and another hooked at his hip, and at his sides were Deuce and Cinque.

"Doesn't seem like the best way to count your bullets," Roxas mused.

"With him, he's counting shots in a mag," Cinque countered.

Deuce stepped towards the fallen shards, picking one up. The jewels of her ring gleamed, and Roxas _felt_ a pulse of magic echoing around her. "Straight down," she mused. "She's in the tunnels. King, comm the headmaster and make sure he knows what he's dealing with."

"On it."

Roxas stepped forward as the gunman headed inside. "Where is she?"

"Get back to the school," Deuce insisted. "This isn't an issue for students to worry about. We're not doing anything eith-"

She was cut off when Roxas grabbed her wrist angrily. "Don't give me that Mulch," he growled. "Where is she?"

Deuce managed to wrestle her arm out of his grip, stepping back. "You're gonna get hell if you leave the grounds at a time like this," she warned.

"You think I'm gonna be alone?" His hair began sparking with flames. "Now, I'm not gonna ask again."

Cinque only hummed amusedly, smirking. "You think we call ourselves Wings of Fire and don't know our way around a little heat?"

The flames began to freeze over. Both of them paled instantly.

"Okay, that's new."

+x+x+x+

 _"Code Red. This is a Code Red. A known outlaw has invaded the school grounds. The intruder is mobile and highly dangerous. For your own safety, return to your classrooms and lock the doors. I repeat..."_

The recorded voice blaring through the loudspeakers was nothing but background noise as Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Xion charged towards the school's nearest exit, in sharp contrast with everyone making their way towards their classrooms. Leon's realization had come with a hastened explanation of what had happened the previous day with the outlaw DiZ had found, which had caused the four of them to realize Roxas and Naminé were in serious danger.

"I thought you weren't allowed to ask us to help?" Riku had reprimanded.

"I'm not," Leon had replied. "I've simply informed you that your friends are at risk, and now I'm going to go tell the headmaster what I know."

The alarm had sounded a few moments after they had left the news clubroom; the four of them were running to the complete ignorance of the Yokai staff reprimanding them, and now charged through the school doors and out onto the grounds. Weapons were drawn, and Xion closed her eyes briefly.

"I'm gonna go get _Rokusasu_ and Naminé," she said quickly.

"Right," Sora mused. "We'll head to the building Leon was talking about and see if they've gotten anyone else. Find another entrance into those tunnels, let's try and corner our culprit."

As Xion charged off, Riku spun round and started stepping backwards. "I'll go on ahead and make sure nothing's waiting to ambush us."

"You sure you're gonna be alright?" Kairi asked.

"Jack and Queen drilled a lesson into me," the werewolf defended, "I should be fine."

He quickly charged off at high speed, leaving Sora to turn to Kairi. "Promise you're not gonna go at them headfirst this time?"

"Yeah, I'll be careful," Kairi insisted.

"Alright. Let's go."

+x+x+x+

"Oh, wonderful."

Both the biker captured by the headmaster and the biker Roxas had encountered were indeed ice dolls; but regardless of what voice they were given, the ice dolls were reflective of their creator - a biker dressed all in figure-hiding red, with a proper helmet bearing a face-obscuring visor. Of course, obscuring one's face tends to limit one's vision; the helmet had been removed, revealing icy blue hair long enough to cascade down her back, as she stood at the waters near which the airship _Blackjack_ had once been moored, a lollipop closed in her mouth.

The witch she had captured earlier was unconscious and bound in ice nearby; her magic had been surprisingly powerful, but in the end a bit of ingenuity and a solid grip with snow fairy ice had been more than enough to stop her from acting any further. No, the real problem was her ice dolls; she had ages more of practice than any of the students would, and she was strong enough to feel and command her ice dolls across the school grounds. The headmaster had found hers in short order - of that she was not surprised - but the one she had stationed near the casino had been noticed and destroyed. Both the school staff _and_ the casino staff would figure out she was down here soon enough, and send someone to find her.

She had enough trouble running from humans. She really didn't need monstrous security forces to deal with.

A stirring caused her to turn; the witch was waking. With a groan, she popped her candy out of her mouth. "Did you have to wake up now?"

"I'm not gonna ask again," Naminé snapped. "Who are you?"

"You really think you're in any position to demand explanations?" the snowgirl demanded.

She tossed her lollipop into the water - and Naminé watched the water _freeze_ as it sunk, the surface freezing mid-ripple; even a single drop arcing off the surface was a solid sphere by the time it connected again, rolling across the surface. The snowgirl picked up that drop, flipping it into the air; the ice expanded as she tossed it, sharpening into a solid blade, and she hurled it forward.

It impaled itself three millimeters from Naminé's ear.

"I should warn you that I am in an _extremely_ foul mood," the biker warned. "And I've been in the human world for far too long. Knives and firearms do not have _nearly_ the flexibility of water and ice. Get on my nerves, and I'll break you with the bonds already on you."

 _Human world... with knives and firearms?_ "You're ex-Yokai?" Naminé demanded.

"Oh, A+ for the star student," the snowgirl mused, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Hey, not all monsters attend Yokai Academy!" Naminé argued. "None of the elders in Oblivion had even heard of this place when I spoke to them about it."

The snowgirl had drawn out another lollipop, and she aimed the stick at Naminé. "This Oblivion... it's rather isolated, isn't it? Out of the way so the humans don't start witch hunting?"

Naminé lowered her gaze. "W-well..."

"Exactly." The wrapping was torn off, and the biker popped the candy into her mouth. "Monsters in the human world - the populated places - who haven't learned to blend are rounded up quick and enrolled. But once you graduate, you're free to go back with the humans. Like me." She shook her head. "You have to be so careful over there. Human officials are paranoid. They're always fighting - it's so sad and pointless. And they're always panicky, worrying about enemy infiltrators. What do you think would happen if a human who doesn't know about our side saw a werewolf or a yoko doing their thing?"

"No offense," Naminé insisted, "but you don't exactly look like someone who'd work nine-to-five bagging groceries at a supermarket."

This earned her a laugh. "Well, you got me there," she admitted. "I'll admit it. I don't work shit. I've been a fighter my whole life. Yokai just taught me I've got to _blend_. Yeah, I'm a thief. I steal and I rob and I burgle. But I do it the same way all the humans do. I climb the walls the hard way. I break the windows with heavy rocks. All of my threats involve forged steel that any of them could get their hands on."

The ice around Naminé started to move, tightening around her arms.

"It makes me itch. Not being able to do anything the way I like. I never run into any other monsters, can you believe it? If a monster runs into another monster, they're free to go at it as long as the humans can't see them. But the humans are off-limits. When I got chased towards the four-dimensional tunnel, I decided I'd swing by here for a bit. Give me a chance to stretch my legs."

Beneath her uniform, the chain around Naminé's right arm started to strain against the pressure of her ice bonds.

"A chance to make something hurt the old-fashioned way."

+x+x+x+

Roxas, as it happened, was charging straight for the abandoned dungeon when a call of " _Rokusasu!_ " stopped him in his tracks. He quickly spun on his heel to find Xion charging straight for him, Keyblade in hand.

" _Shi-oh!_ " He started towards her, meeting her halfway.

"Where's Naminé?" Xion demanded.

"She's been captured by some off-schooler," Roxas insisted. "King smashed an ice doll just outside Wings of Fire. Said he was gonna call the headmaster-"

"The school's on red alert," Xion confirmed. "Leon and the headmaster ended up capturing one of the ice dolls. You got some idea on where she is?"

"Deuce was able to trace the ice doll to Setzer's hangar," Roxas replied. "Once I get to the tunnels, I figure I'll be able to pick up where she is and find out a good path."

Xion shook her head. "I've got a better idea. Normal ice dolls will be gradually melting outside of winter conditions. They'll leave trails. If we find one, we can follow the moisture. Save you a lot of effort."

Roxas chuckled. "Sounds like a plan. Come on, Cinque told me how to get to the tunnels from that old dungeon."

The two of them started dashing with renewed haste.

+x+x+x+

Sora and Kairi arrived at the wrecked building to find Riku standing in the middle of a puddle the size of the school pool.

"I think she's onto us," the werewolf observed.

"No Mulch, Layton," Sora mused, eyeing the puddle warily.

Riku quickly dashed forward, grabbed Sora, and dashed back across before the vampire's body could acknowledge the presence of water. He still got a nasty shock, but it was much less painful than if he had tried to walk across himself and let it splash and soak into his shoes and leggings. Kairi was able to simply get across on her own; then Riku showed them to the hidden tunnel entrance where the ice dolls had been coming from.

Another ice doll was waiting for them - and promptly smacked down with Sora's Keyblade.

"So, what do we do?" Kairi asked. "We just follow the incoming?"

"Better than any plan I got," Riku admitted. "Sora?"

"She's in Setzer's hangar," Sora replied, his eyes closed and his hair vibrating. "But... I can't tell where the tunnels go. Following the ice dolls seems to be the best idea."

"Alright, then." Riku turned to Kairi, flipping his Soul Eater to grab it by the back of the blade. "You wanna take the lead?"

Kairi was slightly wary - but reasoning that ice dolls would pose little threat, she accepted the weapon. "Thanks."

Sora gave her a look. "Don't get careless," he warned.

"You are never going to let me live that down, are you?" Kairi mused.

"Well, Van's not, anyway..."

+x+x+x+

The main problem with Xion's plan of following the ice dolls' trails; none of them had come out through the old dungeon. There was no trail to follow at the start. Roxas elected to fall back to his 'pick up the snowgirl and advance' until Xion noticed moisture.

They were interrupted halfway down by another set of footsteps.

"Oi, Cinque weren't kidding when she said you were gonna give us trouble, hey."

Xion grunted angrily; Roxas only chuckled, glancing towards the Wings of Fire members - Ace, Nine, and Cater. Cater had a rather weighty-looking pistol in her hand, Nine had a slick lance over his shoulders, and Ace was brandishing a card with an interesting pattern on the back. "Deuce has quite the tongue when it comes to curling round the truth," he observed.

"Excuse me?" Ace demanded.

Roxas turned to face them fully. "Her and King and Cinque took out one of the culprit's ice dolls before I got the chance," he mused. "She told me to head back to the school, and said they wouldn't be doing anything. I don't see her, or King, _or_ Cinque here - which means she didn't technically _lie_ , did she? Give her props for that when you get back."

"Speaking of getting back," Cater reprimanded, "what the hell are you doing here? The school's on red alert."

"We're here to help a friend," Xion insisted, switching her light Key to her right hand.

Nine groaned, lowering his lance at his side one-handed. "This is a straight-up outlaw who's been gettin' away in the human world and hasn't gotten in trouble here for it!" he snapped, stepping forward. "You think you're gonna stand a chance? You're not gonna help anyone, y-"

None of them saw Xion's hand left move until the back of it collided with Nine's jaw; the force of the blow was enough to loosen his grip on the lance in his hand. Ace and Cater both started as Nine stumbled back and hit the ground, and Roxas sighed as the lancer got to his feet.

"...Ow, you little bitch, _that **hurt!**_ "

His right fist came flying in for a cross to the jaw - and quickly found itself grabbed by _Roxas'_ left hand. Nine barely had time to panic before the yoko flung the hand away so that it left his chest open for a solid, forceful palm; the strike launched Nine into the wall of the cavern with enough force to knock dust loose. A click from Cater's pistol preluded an angry "Why you little-!" as she raised it, but Xion quickly blasted a shot of icefire into the floor, raising a defensive barrier that stopped her shot cold. Ace charged forward with his card raised, but Roxas only raised his hand threateningly.

A burst of shadows flowed out from his hand - and ran into Ace's card.

The card ignited as the impact knocked it out of Ace's hand.

Ace went still as the kanji at the teeth of the dark Keyblade took form, a few millimeters from his eyes.

Xion shifted her own light Key back to her left hand, prompting Roxas to lower his own. "We're here to help a friend," she repeated. "You're _not_ going to stop us."

"That looked like a bit much."

The two Keyslingers both turned to see a third standing there. "Sora!"

"Kairi, Riku!" Roxas called, turning as the trio approached them. "Where'd you guys come from?"

Riku beckoned over his shoulder with his eyebrow raised.

"Okay, yeah, that was kind of obvious."

Sora glanced around. "What're you guys doing here?"

"Looking for moisture trails from the ice dolls," Xion replied.

Kairi narrowed her gaze. "What?"

"Yeah, mine don't do that."

"We were running into them just back here," Riku replied. "I think you might get something."

"Show me."

The five of them took off, leaving Nine to pick up his lance with a grumble. "Yo, what do we do?" he asked, turning to Ace and Cater.

"We can't just leave them to rush at her full-out," Cater mused. "She's gonna kick their asses."

Ace raised a hand, the jewels of his ring gleaming as he drew out another card; then he tapped the surface of the card, causing it to change. "The ice dolls aren't taking the fastest route," he observed. "We can beat them there before she has a chance to hurt them. Come on."

+x+x+x+

The moisture trails had lingered long enough for Xion to freeze the whole path - convenient, as the ice dolls had stopped coming. Riku charged in ahead (despite the protests of the other four), leaving Kairi to lead the charge with his sword in her grip. Soon enough, they arrived at Setzer's hangar- and they were only very slightly surprised to find the pool frozen solid.

The good news was that Riku was still on his feet when they arrived.

The bad news was that Naminé was **not** on _hers_ ; her sleeve had been blown off, leaving a clear view of her casting chain with three snapped links.

"No, Naminé!" Roxas charged forward, tearing his gloves off as Riku stepped back.

"She's out cold," the werewolf said quickly. "Her whole body's giving off magic vibes that make my skin crawl."

Four tails of flame - the tails of a yoko - began to blaze off Roxas' lower back as he knelt down. "Her chain's flooded with arcana. It starts loosing if the links are damaged." He raised a hand with two fingers extended, causing a haous sphere of raw white flame to blaze at the tips as his other hand set against her links. "Damn it, they broke a while ago. We're gonna have to recast the chain after she's on her feet. Right now, we need to get out of here and get her to the infirmary."

Riku glanced around as he started to work. "She was alone when I got here. Where's that outsider?"

"We didn't see her on our way here," Xion insisted. "Sora?"

Sora had his eyes closed. "Nothing," he insisted. "She's not in here. Wherever she is, she's keeping herself down."

"That can't be right," Riku protested. Then, turning to Roxas; "Can it?"

"The links breaking would have burst like a firecracker," the yoko said quickly. "Unconsciousness keeps you down pretty hard. Could be Ace and the rest beat us here and carried her away before we arrived."

"I can't pick those guys up," Sora muttered. "I have no idea where they are."

Kairi had to admit that she had no idea what they were talking about, but she had more pressing matters; her eyes were scouring the area. The tunnel entrances were all too numerous - although the caves were quite dark, her eyes had adjusted to the shadows on their way here - but none of them seemed like they would lead anywhere useful enough for escaping. There was a very obvious weakness in the far wall, but given the mentions of this place being an old airship hangar, that most likely just led to the oceanside.

Then her gaze fell to the frozen pool.

Her mind flashed back to when she and Sora had first encountered Xion - the way she had sunken through the ice when the need arose.

Leaving the others to talk shop, she stepped forward, dropping onto the ice. The water wasn't just frosted over the surface - it was a full layer of solid ice - but even so, she could make out something underneath - an entryway.

And a figure outside it.

She raised her right hand - and the sound of a chain cracking ripped through the sleeved of her uniform and out across the hangar before she slammed a punch into the ice, fractures dancing across the surface.

Sora, Riku, Roxas, and Xion all turned, horrified to see her kneeling there. Xion was the first to voice their concern. "Kairi! What the hell!?"

Kairi ignored the protest, raising her hand again and slamming another punch into it. Sora quickly charged forward, grabbing her shoulder. "Kairi, what are you doing? You can't just-"

"There's someone down there!"

Everyone went still at that, and Kairi quickly raised her first a third time, bringing it down for another blow.

It passed through the ice - or rather, the surface of the water.

Kairi had no chance to react before the ice melted beneath her, causing her to plummet. Even Sora's vampyric reflexes offered him only the chance to stumble half a step back before the waters caught up beneath him, and he quickly sank beneath the surface - and promptly started sparking at contact with the liquid harm. Riku was charging towards the pool, hoping to get them out before the waters did irreparable damage, when a shard of ice impaled itself in his shoulder, throwing him back, and even Xion found the waters kept unfrozen by a force greater - and more practiced - than her own.

A woman in motorcycle gear shot out of the water, hands covered in icy claws.

"Hello, there!"

Frozen daggers flung themselves forward, narrowly missing Riku, Roxas, Xion, and Naminé as Kairi and Sora sunk into the water. The biker quickly landed on the shore as Roxas and Xion drew their Keyblades, Riku reclaiming Soul Eater and raising it next to his head.

"That chain gave me a nasty surprise," she admitted, "but it'll take more than that to knock me out. And when I felt a couple vampires coming, I couldn't well just sit out in the open for a snack, could I?"

Roxas charged forward, his flaming tails lashing forward, but the biker only stepped aside from every blow before catching Roxas' dark Key on her claws. Icy rings tore out of the pool and locked around Roxas' arms, and though his body's natural sparks melted the ice in short order, they still hit hard enough for him to falter; the biker quickly kicked him in the chest. Riku rushed forward with a clothesline charge, but she managed to dodge it at the last second, losing nothing more than a few locks of hair, before freezing a wall out of the pool for him to run into.

That wall quickly grew a sharp blade that slammed into his leg; then it shattered with enough burst to throw the werewolf back. The ice shards daggered towards the biker, and she quickly leapt out of the way - and into Xion's light Key. One blow landed on her shoulder; she managed to deflect the second with a swipe before catching it on one set of claws, giving Xion an opening to slash at her with her own. The strike was barely sidestepped, causing the biker's hold on the Keyblade to falter, and giving Roxas a chance to hurl _his_ Keyblade at her. It impaled in the ground when she leapt away, landing at the poolside.

Xion quickly picked up the dark Key, brandishing them both threateningly.

"Oooh, Yokai's got one who knows her way around a fight!" the biker taunted. "This should be fun!"

"I know a lot more than a fight," Xion snapped. "I know what a vampire _really_ feels like!"

The biker's smirk fell. "What-!?"

She realized a moment too late; she turned around already leaping away, and even that only turned what would have been a blow to the chest into a blow to the shoulder; Kairi had dragged herself and Sora out of the pool, and the force of her blow sent the biker flying into the cave wall.

Her hair had darkened a thousand shades, more reminiscent of obsidian reflecting fire.

And her eyes had turned blood red.

* * *

Draco: Damn it. Just when I thought Black Butler wasn't doing the whole cliffhangers-for-ten-volumes-straight thing that Rosa-Vam did. I'm tempted to buy volumes with a $100 budget or until I'm caught up with the series, whichever comes first, but experience implies that I'll stop on a cliffhanger either way (if the series hasn't concluded). At least it's not a single continuous story arc. Not that a single continuous story arc doesn't come with a _wonderful_ payoff at the end, but it's nice to have some temporary closure every so often, you know?

(Note that, of this writing, I have only completed Volume XIV (concluding at Chapter 62), and will react with untoward violence against any spoilers)


	5. Rage of White

Draco: Part of me hopes that the lack of reviews for Chapters 3 and 4 is just my readers being busy. Part of me is kinda hoping that my readers are all [trying to be] 0-ers and are avoiding everything about Type-0 so they can laugh and scream and cry their hearts out the way I did.

Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue comes out this month. Do excuse me if I suddenly disappear after this chapter, I have like nine pseudo-literations to (re)write over at deviantART, I (and at least two of my readers) have been waiting for this since Dream Drop Distance came out.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Rage of White**

Kairi's feet collided with stained glass.

In the depths of one's heart, time does not flow in synch with the passage of the body. When there is nothing the body can do, three days can become a few minutes' conversation; when the heart needs settle a matter in haste, a moment's passage can become planning and action. As Kairi arrived, she was wrapped in a flood of light - when it faded, her form was draped in a stunning dress woven from pure white dove feathers, fitted perfectly to her body, and upon her arms were tattoos of haous black dragons; with their roaring heads nestled in her palms.

Another figure landed behind her as the station beneath her took form. Coldest red, its edge ringed with repeated images of the same emblem - twin feathers of shining platinum, twisted into tornadoes. The crimson was barely visible, for upon the surface was a labyrinthine weave of gears in an entire pallete of necrous silver; in the dead center of the station lay one in black and bloodred, divided so that its twin halves formed an _S_. The moment the presence behind her was fully there, Kairi glanced over her shoulder; then she twisted and leapt away, landing at the edge of the station as the other did the same.

It was Kairi.

With skin pale like a new moon.

With hair crossed by a thousand shadows.

With nails tapered into claws.

With eyes of fresh blood.

And when she opened her mouth to speak, it was with fangs arced to points.

And with a voice steeped in a black heart.

"Finally fighting something tougher than yakuza and street loners?"

Kairi smirked at her darkness, eyeing the black feathers that decorated her body like a void wraith - though there was substantially less skin revealed than she seemed to remember. "You've been itching for a fight."

"You've been holding me back since Yokai went out," her darkness countered, a like smirk rising on her face. "It's about time you let me kick something."

Both smiles fell. "An abominable snowgirl," Kairi said quickly. "Older than Yokai. She dropped Sora in a pool. I think she was blocking Xion's freeze."

Her darkness nodded. "Let me at her," she insisted. "I'll show her what you can _really_ do."

Kairi nodded, raising her left hand forward - and in the center of the station, upon the split gear, emerged a flare of energy. When it faded, a great door stood there - tall and ornate, from silver and garnets.

"Good luck."

"Here's hoping I don't need it."

Her darkness stepped forward and gripped the handles of the door, thrusting it open and stepping into the glow within.

+x+x+x+

And a snow fairy slammed into the cavern wall.

Kairi's crimson eyes surveyed the area. Roxas's tails were still lit, and Xion had both his Keyblade and her own in her hands. Riku had gotten to his feet, and looked no less eager to punish their aggressor despite the strikes he'd taken to his shoulder and leg. Naminé was still unconscious, and Sora didn't look like he was in any condition to be fighting - and with the biker snowgirl pulling herself off the wall, they were in no position to give the bloodsucker a drink.

"You little _shit!_ " the biker snapped, her hand freezing over with icy claws. "I suppose you think you're _tough_. Now try it _without_ the surprise. A wet vampire can only throw so many punches!"

"A vampire isn't the one fighting you," Kairi snapped back.

The biker narrowed her gaze. "With those fangs? And those claws?"

Kairi glanced down to find her claws were coming out the fingers of her gloves; a run of her tongue over her teeth revealed that her fangs were on full display. "Yeah," she admitted, "I kinda look like it. But wait a moment and take it in. Does that feel like a hit from something that's been _weakened_?"

"Yeah," the biker admitted. "It does."

"Well, dammit," Kairi observed, turning to Roxas, "you weren't kidding, were you?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Did I sound like I was kidding?"

Kairi ignored him and turned back to their opponent. "Fine," she insisted. "If you wanna try your luck, go ahead. You're still outnumbered four-to-one."

"Four-to-one against sophomores who are on guard duty for two more," the biker countered. "And your fairy can't even keep water cold!"

"I haven't have time to practice making ice cubes," Xion countered. "I've been busy stoking the fires."

The dark Key vanished from her hands, and she raised that hand - and cold blue flames began to burn in her palm. The biker had no chance to counter before the blast slammed into her - all the force of a yoko's burn, but with a chill that threw her off-guard as she stumbled back. Roxas, now with Key in hand, charged forward; a solid strike shattering the ice on her hands, and Xion quickly moved in and blasted the wall behind her, launching rubble that prompted her to leap away. Riku moved in with a charging thrust, landing a nasty cut along the side of her biker outfit, and Kairi quickly rushed into and grabbed her while she was flinching, throwing her across the hangar. Another icefire blast hit the ground before her, the ice quickly closing around her legs before she could flinch.

"What the _shit!?_ " the biker snapped. "What are you _doing!?_ "

"Some loser who doesn't know how to write a webcomic calls it 'cryopyra'," Xion countered. "Frost in the form of flames. A fire that melts no ice - but still hits hard enough to break it, if need be." She raised her Keyblade. "How much longer are you gonna keep this up?"

The biker girl grinned. "Are you kidding me?" she retaliated. "This is the most fun I've had in _ages!_ " The ice quickly receded from around her legs before Xion could react, and she leapt back and raised her claws threateningly. "What else have you got in your bag of tricks?!"

Xion glared.

Roxas _roared_ , advancing as his Keyblade was wrapped in crimson fire; the snow fairy leapt away as the yoko swung, and his tails lashed forward like a trio of whips, skimming her coat and charring it. Riku quickly hurled his Soul Eater like a dagger, impaling it in the stones just behind the biker, and Kairi charged while she was still reacting to it; even so, the biker's reaction was sharp, and sharpened nails met icy claws.

And then a spine collided with the cave wall.

The snow fairy yelped as she realized that - weakened or not - she didn't nearly have enough **force** to overcome a **vampire**.

"Just because I'm not at the top of my game doesn't mean I can't show you _what I'm made of!_ "

Kairi slammed a foot into the wall next to the biker's ribs and spun, swinging the snow fairy around. Riku was there before she let go, and quickly landed a flurry of punches that put Little Mac to shame - every blow collided before could react to the last. As Roxas charged up behind him, the werewolf dodged around and reclaimed his Soul Eater; the flaming Keyblade collided with the biker's attempts to block and melted through the icy claws without even slowing down, a blazing blow causing the snow fairy to yelp as she was thrown back. Xion hurled her Keyblade forward, and when the biker started to dodge Kairi grabbed it mid-flight and drove it teeth-first into the wall with enough force to trap the _guard_ there; the kanji pierced her jacket, and her arm ended up trapped between the stone and the shaft.

Roxas sighed, flames starting to gather around his tails. "Right," he mused. "You still wanna play tough?"

The biker opened her mouth.

Something slammed into Roxas' back, causing him to yelp and stumble forward as his tails went out, and everyone looked behind him to see red capes on a familiar trio of figures perched at the edge of the pool opposite Sora - and dripping wet.

"Right. That's enough of that."

"Ace?" Kairi stepped forward. "Cater, Nine. What are you doing here?"

A sharp cut skimmed across her arm, and she yelped, turning round on the biker - who had one hand refrozen. "Don't dare you turn away on me when we're in the middle of-!"

Roxas hurled his Keyblade. The teeth slammed into the other side of her jacket, and Kairi quickly slammed the snow fairy's arm against the wall and jammed the Keyblade in the way she had Xion's. "Don't eff around with us right now," the yoko reprimanded.

"Okay, enough of that, yo," Nine snapped. "Stop messin' around with our target."

Cater was already approaching them, pistol in hand. "Headmaster caught wind of you guys. He told us to make sure you were out of here safely. You guys go with Ace, me and Nine will take Uranai here to the administration."

"Uranai?"

Everyone's startled reaction caused Ace to raise a hand of cards - and the hand lifted out of his grip, each card flying towards one of the news club members. On each was a _mugshot_ of the biker snowgirl. "Uranai Aijin," Ace explained. "Yokai graduate. Wanted in seven human world jurisdictions for petty theft, breaking and entering, burglary, robbery, and unpaid parking tickets. She has defied no rules of Yokai coexistence, but as she did threaten..." the gambler counted heads and concluded, "six students of Yokai since she arrived, the headmaster demanded that she be brought to him personally."

Xion turned to the biker with a snicker. "You earned a reputation with a name like Uranai? Your cellmates must've given you hell."

"Shut up."

Riku sighed. "Look, if the headmaster told us to head back, we'll head back, but it's probably better if you three don't divide yourselves. We can find our own way back, but she's good."

Uranai smirked. "He's got a point there," she mused. "For example-"

The air in the cave dropped thirty degrees.

Having come out of the cave entrance beneath the pool, the Wings of Fire staff were all soaking wet; Cater barely had time to raise her pistol before the ice wrapped her body and trapped her in place. Riku quickly spun around with his sword raised, but blades of ice quickly ripped themselves out of the petrified gunner, causing everyone to leap for cover. Ace hurled a hand of cards at her, but Uranai only spat at him, the saliva freezing solid and bursting into a spiked orb that knocked his cards out of the air; then Cater spun around without warning, and the blades impaled in her quickly arced enough to pry the Keyblades trapping her arms out of the wall.

"Right, next!"

Nine leapt at her with a howling roar, his lance raised, but Uranai only raised a hand towards him, freezing him before he was anywhere close - and then freezing supports for him so he next hit the ground. Kairi threw a punch towards her face, but the biker only leapt aside, leaving the blow to dig into the wall. Riku charged forward with his empty hand raised; Uranai dropped to the ground and kicked at his legs while he was still moving, throwing him to the ground as she got up. Roxas and Xion charged forward, their Keyblades reappearing in their hands, but the biker only met each weapon with a handful of claws; when Roxas' Key started to heat up, she quickly sidestepped him and let his force push him to the ground before moving Xion's Key with enough force to throw her into him.

By this time, Ace was on his feet, already with another hand of cards; Uranai raised an eyebrow as he hurled them at her. The claws of one hand moved as the cards approached, and each one ended up impaled on one of her icy spikes - she managed to cancel her momentum in time to see an 'Oh, Mulch' look on the gambler's face.

Then she hurled the cards right back at him.

Ace's hand moved, and the cards froze in the air before him, raising so their backs were facing the biker; then he swept both hands in a round motion, and the five cards arced into a circular motion. The ring on his finger gleamed as it passed the gap between them, and a light began to gather between the cards; then he thrust his right hand forward, and a beam of magic shot forward, causing Uranai to leap aside.

"Well, shit," she muttered, glancing at the news club to see they were all ready to charge again. "You know, I thought tarot cards were bad enough, but a gambler and a proper deck are in a whole tier of their own."

Kairi opened her mouth to agree.

Riku had a different opinion. " ** _Tier!?_** "

"Did you just say 'tier'?!" Xion demanded.

"She just said 'tier'," Roxas confirmed.

"You know what," Riku snapped, "just for that, we're taking you to the headmaster ourselves."

Uranai and Kairi had just enough time to share a glance of 'what the hell' before Riku charged forward. The biker moved to deflect the blade, only to realize too late that Riku had his Soul Eater in a _backhand_ grip; the mistimed swipe left her wide open for a blow that had her spinning, and Riku quickly shifted the weapon back to forehand to slam a solid cut into her side. Roxas and Xion charged forward with their blades crossed while Uranai was still reeling - which meant she couldn't react in time to avoid the cross-slash that knocked her to the ground. She quickly got to her and froze her hands over, only to hear Ace preparing another hand; the pool between them froze into a solid wall that blocked off anything he might try to do, and she quickly launched a shower of icy shards towards the three aggressors to preempt any more attacks.

She had the mind to stop the shards from colliding with _her_ \- which meant her back was wide open.

"You know..."

A quick spin saved her; Uranai raised her claws to catch the silver weapon before it could collide with her, locking gazes with Sora - who looked absolutely _wiped_ , and positively _furious_.

"If you don't want to judge people by what they do with the element of surprise," he snapped, "don't hand it out so easily."

"Damn!" Uranai growled. "You were waiting this whole time!"

Sora snickered, a grin rising on his face. "You flatter me," he taunted. "I wasn't waiting. I was only half-conscious. That's what happens when a real one gets that wet!"

Uranai started adding more pressure, pushing him back - and forcing him almost to the edge of the pool. "Then why don't we give you another soak," she snapped, "and you can see how much of a sneak attack you can pull off _then!_ "

"I've got a better idea," Sora strained, fighting to stop himself from falling into the water. "Why don't we try this mano-a-mano? All you got, against all I got? No sneak attacks, no double teaming, no icefire! Just a snowgirl, against a vampire...!"

Heavy footsteps told her someone was charging her back through the barrage.

"...instead of a _good other_ _!_ "

She glanced behind her to see a hand raised; then Uranai leapt over Sora, dragging him backwards. His Key vanished the moment she moved, but the damage was done; he was tumbling back when Kairi reached forward and grabbed the crown hanging from his neck. Uranai kicked off the wall and leapt to shore, and Kairi and Sora locked gazes - ocean blue against bloody red.

"Bite."

The chain gave way the instant she pulled.

An instant was too slow to stop Sora from being dragged away from the water, and Kairi quickly grabbed the back of his head and drove his teeth into her neck.

Pure monstrous _force_ ripped up around them, causing Uranai to raise a hand defensively; Xion and Roxas took several rapid steps back, and Riku vanished, reappearing next to the unconscious Naminé. Sora's hair turned jet-black, and his skin paled; his fingerless gloves offered a clear display as his nails elongated and were adorned in cuts. Kairi's pose started to slack, and his hands moved to support her as he lifted his mouth off her neck - revealing his teeth had sharpened into menacing fangs that dripped with blood. He raised his head skyward and breathed a hearty sigh, like a parched jogger who had just drained a glass or a bottle; then he turned his gaze on Uranai.

His eyes snapped open - bloody red, with a ring of gold between the iris and pupil.

"How long has it been since I had a good drink?"

Kairi stumbled away as Van stepped forward, cracking his knuckles. "Right, then," he mused. "You wanted a good fight, didn't you?"

"You know," Uranai observed, "if any other vampire gave off an aura like that and said they wanted a brawl, I'd tell them to get bent from the other side of a silver blade." She smirked. "But a kid like you? Yeah, I'm game."

"A kid," Van snickered. "Yeah, I guess I am."

His smile fell.

"...Aren't I?"

Riku turned to him. "Van?"

"I... no, it's nothing," Van insisted, shaking his head. "Mulch it. Let's..." He dropped to a combative stance. "Let's just do this."

Shiva acted.

Diabolos acted.

Diabolos connected first.

+x+x+x+

"So, are we allowed to talk about you in the Yokai Times?"

Roxas and Xion had taken Naminé to her dorm room to rest up and repair her casting chain; Riku had headed back to the news clubroom to make sure nothing that had been left behind had been scattered during their panic to save her. That left Kairi and Van to help Ace, Nine, and Cater get Uranai out of the hangar; they surfaced at Wings of Fire, and Seven and Jack quickly took over their cargo as Nine and Cater went to recuperate (even for a magi-human, getting frozen by a snow fairy is no pleasance).

At Kairi's question, Ace shook his head. "You're not allowed to talk about _her_ ," he insisted. "Everything that happened down there, stays down there."

"What in the ass," Van demanded. "The school was blaring code red. What kind of newspaper doesn't report on that?"

"Just say you didn't have enough information about it," Deuce dismissed. "Maybe include a bit section on page eight. Apologize for leaving them without the details."

The vampire groaned. "Do we have enough Mulch to have eight pages?" he asked Kairi.

"If Naminé's in any condition to do her art tips, then maybe."

"You guys got a problem with it, take it to the headmaster," Ace prompted. "But anything that we do outside of the school building or Wings of Fire never happened."

Van sighed. "Fine," he muttered. "Come on, snack tray, let's head back."

The two of them left the building, and Kairi reached for her neck. "Speaking of which," she mused, "try not to suck so much next time. I felt like I was gonna pass out."

"You've been holding off on me since the school year started," Van countered. "If you tell me to bite after I get wet, I don't have the best control."

"Point," Kairi admitted. "Still, I was staggering half the way here. Show a little moderation or your _snack tray_ isn't gonna last three servings."

"Fine, fine," Van mused. "You gonna give my crown back?"

Kairi handed him the rosario. "Can I ask you one last question before you go under?"

Van took the loop and clicked it onto the single chain still connected to his choker. "No," he preempted, "I don't know what that was about. And I wish I did."

"What?"

She got no response; the claws receded, the fangs dulled, and in an instant Sora was sleeping on his feet in front of Wings of Fire.

Kairi glanced back at the casino. "Well, this is awkward."

+x+x+x+

 _Wings of Fire Casino & Combat Center - Yokai's Newest Place to Lift the Heart!_

Seven days after the Uranai incident, that headline adorned several hundred sheets in a stack of papers. The news club had set up hand-outs just outside the school entrance, and Riku was sitting at the front of the table, waving a copy above his head.

"Paper! Paper! Getcher newest issue of Yokai Times! First one of the school year!"

The werewolf was shortly reminded that it was a bad idea to hand out the paper with nothing between you and the crowd when several calls of "Kingdom! Chikai! Kurai! Kioku!" caught his ears. His smile fell, and he quickly dashed around the table and took position to hand out as the stampede approached. "Right," he mused. "Not in front."

Xion chuckled. "You know," she mused, "with the crowds we get for the paper, maybe we should think about getting some more members for the news club."

"I don't know," Sora argued. "I kinda like our small, tightly-knit group, you know?"

"That is unpleasantly familiar in ways it shouldn't be," Roxas muttered.

"Sora's right, though," Naminé admitted. "What's wrong with us six working together?"

"That's still one less than last year," Kairi observed.

"What was Setzer doing that you miss his presence so much?" Riku objected. "He wasn't there half the time."

Kairi lowered her gaze. "Well... Leon said..."

Naminé gave her a look. "What?"

"He said that, with Setzer gone... I'm the best candidate for this year's SiC."

Sora whirled around - and started handing out papers backwards. "What?!" he exclaimed, a smile on his face. "Kairi, that's awesome!"

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable being in a position of power," Kairi insisted.

"Kairi, we're six people," Roxas insisted. "Club SiC is mainly a thing for larger clubs so that the teacher running the joint has someone to delegate command to. The only reason a small club like ours even has a SiC is in case we get more members."

Kairi sighed. "Then, here's hoping we don't get any more."

Her apprehension was concerning - but, nonetheless, the six of them simply continued handing out papers, hoping they wouldn't run out before Leon came with the next batch.

* * *

Draco: Two pieces of trivia just to preempt a couple of questions I anticipate for this chapter.

1\. I hate Fortuneteller Heartless in KHII. I wish I could tell you I had a good reason for that, like "They always fly out of my reach" or "They look like cheap carnies" or "They give me flashbacks of Hyrdos", but the fact is I don't have a good reason.

2\. The competitive Smash community is a bunch of pretentious assholes* who can't have fun. Consequently, I have come to hate the Smash metagame with a vengeance that has got Mephisto asking me if I want to be the next Ghost Rider.  
*based on all competitive Smashers I have met thus far, whom I KNOW to be competitive Smashers.


	6. Chasing a Trail in Blood

Draco: Okay, got my first Final Mix done, and I have a couple dozen non-PlayStation games to cycle through, so let's spin a short arc, shall we?

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Chasing a Trail in Blood**

"Page 714, fourth paragraph down. Please read the passage aloud, Miss Karui."

Classes at Yokai Academy might have come harder than any school in the human world - which means the last class on a Monday morning often feels like it will drag on forever. At Y'shtola's prompt, Xion located the passage in question and cleared her throat with a light cough. Kairi, seated on the other side of an empty to her left, found the passage familiar, and ended up mouthing along as the snowgirl spoke.

" _Two blades on the_ _battlefield,_ " Xion read. " _How different, how alike. Their size, their form. Strength, weakness - all is nothing. For the will behind the weapons empowers the clashing strikes. For neither the solider nor the champion has determination that can overcome the other. Only another that chooses to enter, to interfere with this endless clash, can bring one to strike the other down. A brawler who wishes to end this eternal brawl. But they are closed off, separated from the outside world. And that means neither edge will break._ "

Y'shtola nodded. "This quote is attributed to an ancient king by the name of Gration," she told the class. "Can anyone tell me the meaning of this passage?"

A single hand was raised in the middle of the room.

The professor was surprised. "Oh?" she mused. "Miss Chikai?"

Kairi suddenly felt very nervous at Y'shtola's tone. "It's a warning about the dangers of rivalry," she explained. "The 'champion' and 'soldier' mentioned have been fighting each other for so long, they've blocked out everything else. They're evenly matched, on their own, but they refuse to accept help. And they've poured so much into this war between _them_ that they're not willing to stand down, because they've lost so much already. It can only end if an outside force creates a conclusion. Sickness in one of them, or circumstances that keep them from continuing. But they're so absorbed in their war that it has to be something drastic; otherwise it's nothing more than..." She fished around for the right word before finishing with "a brief intermission."

Y'shtola hummed curiously. "Interesting," she admitted. "And where did you hear that view, Miss Chikai?"

An embarrassed blush crossed Kairi's face. "Er... that's... my _own_ view, Professor Y'shtola," she admitted, earning several derisive chuckles from the rest of the class. "I read the passage at my previous school when I ended up on the wrong page during a sick absence, and looked into the background behind once it became clear that it wouldn't be part of the class. That was the conclusion I drew."

There was a brief quiet, with Y'shtola wearing an expression somewhere between amused and contemplative.

"Miss Chikai, you are exempted from today's assignment."

A chorus of " **Huh!?** " echoed across the classroom. "Wait," Kairi protested, " _what?_ "

"Ancient quotes such as this have not only one possible meaning," Y'shtola continued. "Whatever the intention of the original speaker, if it has not been made explicit - and recorded alongside the quote itself - it is long lost to the abyss of history. In such cases, it is better to take a lesson of your own discerning than to simply parrot another's." She turned the page of her teacher's copy of the textbook. "On pages 715 and 716 are several such ancient quotations. I would like each of you to select one of these quotations. Then - individually - I would like each of you to take your own interpretations. Hand them in by tomorrow."

Kairi buried her face behind her textbook. "Awkward..."

Y'shtola offered her a smile. "Miss Chikai," she assured Kairi, "if you are the type to pursue extra credit - or you are simply not one to sit idle in class - I would like a summary of that 'background' for King Gration's quote you mentioned."

The rest of the class passed without incident, and as the bell rang to end the last class of the day Kairi made her way to Y'shtola's desk. "Here you are," she told the professor.

"Oh, thank you, Miss Chikai," Y'shtola prompted. "Hold on-" Leaning over to speak past her, "Miss Karui, Mr. Kaigara, could I speak with you two as well?"

Xion and Roxas were halfway out the door at her prompt. Confused, the two of them stepped forward. "Something the matter, professor?" Roxas asked.

Y'shotla nodded, shifting through a few papers on her desk. "It's about Mr. Kingdom," she prompted.

Kairi saw this coming; Sora's absence today had been entirely unforeshadowed. "I take it you want us to bring him the homework?" she asked.

"No," Y'shtola replied; then, correcting herself, "well, I suppose. But that's not why I wanted to speak with you. The headmaster has marked him for justified absences... for the entire week."

Xion started. "All week?"

"That's why I was concerned," Y'shtola admitted. "Has he seemed... off, in any way, over the weekend? Taken ill, or appeared depressed, or been acting suspiciously?"

The snowgirl shook her head. "No," she mused. "I mean, he didn't come with us to Wings of Fire yesterday, but I think that's cause Rem ran him broke the day before."

Y'shtola sighed. "I realize I'm being unjustly curious," she prompted, "but would you mind confirming the cause with him? I'm a little concerned."

"That makes five of us," Kairi murmured.

"Seven," Roxas added. "Riku and Naminé are gonna freak out, too."

"I'll stop by his dorm tonight and ask him about it," Xion assured Y'shtola.

"Thank you."

+x+x+x+

 _Knock knock knock._

"Sora?"

There was quiet for a moment as Xion waited for a response. She had a horrible sense of déjà vu from last year's pre-summer studies - further intensified by the fact that she received no response from the doorway. After a moment's wait, the snowgirl raised her hand to knock again.

"What are you doing?"

Xion _screamed_ , whirling around as ice claws covered her right hand and her Keyblade appeared in her left. She raised the shining weapon before her defensively, only to see the one speaking to her between the twin shafts; a figure in red that looked like armour, with a face covered in bandages and strapped with a pair of belts - leaving only his mouth and a single golden eye exposed.

" _Headmaster_ ," Xion squealed. She lowered her Key as the claws evaporated, loosing a heavy sigh; as she spoke, her voice was strained from the brief panic. "Stiria's wheel, don't **do** that. I don't mean to tell you how to do your job," she added, raising her now-unfrozen hand, "but you have a very dominating voice and you didn't make any sound on the approach."

DiZ only hummed. "Then I shall consider myself fortunate that you prefer a defensive response," he noted. "What are you doing here?"

"Professor Y'shtola asked me to speak with Sora," she insisted. "You cleared him for a whole week of missing classes?"

"Yes," DiZ confirmed. "And I can assure you that Sora is in no way doing anything involuntary. He has insisted I remain secretive on what he was doing until further notice. In addition," he added, "I should tell you that he asked me to seal his doorway so that no students may enter - and then tested my seal with his Keyblade to ensure that his friends were no exception."

Xion glanced back at the door incredulously, and then turned to the headmaster again.

"You are free to attempt for yourself."

"As someone who's spent far too long in the unpleasant places," Xion admitted, "I know that the guy who invites someone to check isn't the guy who has anything to hide." She faded her Keyblade and shook her head. "You sure he's going to be back by the end of the week?"

DiZ nodded. "He was confident that he would return before classes began next Monday."

A sigh from Xion. "Alright, I'll tell the others."

+x+x+x+

"You _did_ check the door after the headmaster left, right?"

The remaining members of the news club had met up in Sweet Fang on Preternatural Street to discuss Sora's absences. Roxas' pointed query had Xion sighing. "Yes, _Rokusasu_ , I checked. It's solid."

"Sorry for being the clueless one," Riku asked, "but what difference does it make?"

"The headmaster might have been able to keep it sealed while he was actually there," Naminé explained. "By testing it only after he was gone, she knows its Key-proof."

Kairi sighed. "Actually, Sora did talk to me the other day before we left for Wings," she admitted. "I didn't bring it up because I didn't want to sound stupid in front of Y'shtola if she doesn't know how those things work."

Riku raised an eyebrow. "Those things?" he asked.

"Keyblades," Kairi replied. "Remember that chain Van had for Sora's that changed it?"

"The Keychain," Xion mused. "I have no idea where he got one of those."

"Sora asked to have it back," she prompted. "I figured, now that school's back in and we're getting into trouble again, Van was wanting a proper weapon."

Roxas chuckled into his slushie. "You make this sound like a war school," he observed.

"Tachibana's rules on fighting were 'one punch means one day's suspension'," Kairi protested. "Apparently, administration here prefers it if someone pulls a knife."

The yoko, werewolf, and snowgirl all hid their faces in their drinks. Naminé rolled her eyes. "You think he might have wanted the Keychain for something off the school grounds?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Kairi admitted. "The only thing I saw that made it any different than his silver one is that Van can use it." She made to lift her milkshake to her mouth.

Not half a second passed between the end of her sentence and the slamming of five cups into the table.

"You don't think..." Riku spoke for all of them.

"I do, actually," Kairi admitted.

Roxas lowered his gaze. "We need to talk to him," he muttered. "You wouldn't happen to have brought your cell, would you? We had to give Slasher and his crew theirs back."

Kairi chuckled awkwardly. "I don't want to think about what my roaming charges would be through the tunnel of the fourth dimension," she admitted. "It's sitting in my bedroom in Anvāsu. And besides, if Sora had the headmaster seal his room, I don't think he's going to pick up his cell."

"Point."

Riku rattled his fingers on the table. "You figure we could stop by Seventh Heaven and speak with Tifa?" he asked.

Xion chuckled. "Sure," he mused, "let's just have that silver on the bus take us to Edge, shall we?"

"That... might work."

Kairi's words had everyone turning to her. "Remember I told you how I tried to run off on my second day last year? 'That silver' pulled the bus up as soon as I was alone at the turnaround. I think... if we headed up there, he'd take us."

"Y'shtola, Almasy, Leon, and the headmaster would all have our asses," Roxas mused. "Possibly in different directions."

"Then let's not all go at once," Naminé insisted. "Me and Kairi can head to Edge, get info on Sora, and come back to switch parties."

"I don't think the bus can take you straight to Edge," Xion corrected. "The tunnel comes out in Midgar, and the road to Edge can barely fit a Hardy-Daytona and sidecar." After a moment's thought; "There's a working phone in the old Seventh Heaven building in Midgar, though, and I know the number for the bar in Edge."

"Sounds like a plan," Roxas confirmed.

Riku sighed. "What the hell am I going to tell Seifer when he asks why you're gone?" he asked Naminé.

"You can tell him I called a certain werewolf a little bitch."

" _What!?_ "

+x+x+x+

Late that afternoon, Kairi and Naminé made their way to the bus stop. Kairi had the stun rifle from her father's company slung over one shoulder, and Naminé was carrying a sketchbook and pencils in case she needed some more detailed arcana than her casting chain could provide. No sooner had they arrived than a familiar engine's hum emerged from the tunnel, and an amused smile painted itself on Kairi's face as the bus pulled up.

The door slid open, and the bus driver turned his golden eyes on them.

"And where shall we be going this evening?"

"That is _so many_ levels of creepy," Naminé protested.

"You can find people by drawing them and their present surroundings," Kairi countered.

Naminé only shook her head. "We're heading to Midgar," she told the bus driver. "How much trouble are you gonna be in for giving us a lift?"

"You need not concern yourselves with me."

Kairi followed Naminé as she made her way to the back of the bus. "Speaking of which," she added as the vehicle began moving, "I don't suppose you could just draw Sora when we get to Midgar?"

The witch shook her head. "A few things you missed about _all_ forms of divination," she reprimanded. "A, it's less useful at long ranges, so unless he's _in_ Midgar, I'm not going to have much luck. And even then, I'm pretty sure Midgar is huge. B, I need to know what I'm looking at to make use of what I can see. I know Yokai grounds pretty much by heart, but if he's somewhere I've never been then I'm screwed. And C, witch magic is less potent in industrial areas. You'd better not be relying on me to find him."

"I see..." Kairi hummed curiously, glancing out the windows - and into the darkness of the tunnel. "Well, I'm guessing he won't exactly be hiding in Altair, so we'll be left with whatever lead Tifa can give us."

"Here's hoping it's a lead we can even follow."

+x+x+x+

The phone rang in Seventh Heaven.

The bar had closed just an hour ago; there was no one in the bar area. Fortunately, the building was quiet, and everyone in the building was cited for rather sharp ears, which meant the phone's ringing eventually drew the hurried footsteps of a certain spiky-headed biker down the stairs. He had been near-literally buried in work, and in his haste to make sure he didn't miss the call, he spared not even a glance for the display as he raised the phone to his ear. "Seventh Heaven."

 _"...Cloud Strife?"_

"Speaking."

A sigh of relief - the kind of relief one feels when their task is made so much easier. _"Hey, Cloud, it's Kairi."_

Cloud was surprised at that. "Kairi?" He gave the display a quick glance; "What are you doing in Midgar? Isn't Yokai back on?"

 _"Yeah, it is,"_ Kairi confirmed. _"That's kind of why I'm here. Have you guys seen Sora lately?"_

"What!?"

+x+x+x+

 _"You mean he just up and vanished?"_

Tifa's shocked inquiry only had Kairi shrugging. "From the sounds of it, yeah," she admitted. "He didn't show up to class today, and Y'shtola said he's been cleared for the week. The headmaster says he's fine, but... something about that guy just rubs me the wrong way."

A sigh from the bartender. _"Sora hasn't come by here,"_ she insisted, _"and he didn't seem out of the ordinary before school started. I mean, he left a day sooner than he had to, but I figured he just wanted to make sure he didn't forget anything this time."_

Kairi hummed worriedly, glancing around. "We'll keep our eyes out," she told Tifa. "Could you maybe call his cell and see if he's willing to pick up?"

 _"We can try,"_ Tifa admitted. _"But if he's hiding something, I think he'll know better."_

"Alright, thanks." Kairi quickly hung up the phone and turned to Naminé, who was coming down from the loft. "Anything?"

"Nothing," Naminé admitted. "Anything in Edge?"

"Tifa and Cloud had nothing," Kairi mused. "She said she was-"

She cut herself off as a sudden tune caught her ears. Naminé gave her a look. "What?"

"Don't you hear that?" Kairi asked.

"Vampires are pretty sharp-eared," Naminé insisted, "I think you're getting a little resonance. What do you hear?"

"Music," Kairi replied. Then, when the music faded out and abruptly restarted, at what was clearly not the end of the song; "A _ringtone_."

Naminé started. "What?"

Kairi's gaze went to the floor. "It's coming from below..."

" _Stop!_ "

An attempt at raising her gaze to Naminé's outburst failed entirely - Kairi's body refused to move for a moment. Consequently, when she started to topple forward from her stance, she was unable to put her hands out to stop her, and her nose slammed roughly into the floor. Naminé yelped, releasing her magic and dropping to one knee. "Kairi, you alright?"

"What the hell?" Kairi demanded, gripping her nose. "What was that for?"

"You were going to punch through the floor again!" Naminé insisted. "I panicked."

"I wasn't-"

"Yes, you were!"

Kairi lowered her gaze sheepishly.

Naminé glanced around. "It doesn't look like there are any stairways down," she murmured. "But why would there be...?" She trailed off as her gaze fixated on a pinball machine in the corner. "Wait."

The witch stepped towards it, leaving Kairi - once she was sure her nose wasn't bleeding - to follow. The floor of the bar was naturally less-than-tidy, given it was in a ruined city, but a light brushing with one hand revealed a faint segmentation along the floor, around the machine. "Does this look familiar?" she asked Kairi.

"I was a ghoul on the way to Edge," she reminded the witch, "and Sora drove the way back at _way_ faster speeds than he should have."

"Okay, point," Naminé admitted. She turned back to the machine, and the chain around her arm started to glow. "I wonder..."

Kairi stepped back as she thrust the chain forward; the floor started to shift, and the pinball machine descended into the floor, shifting out of the way. A steel plate rose up to take its place, and Naminé weakly stumbled back as the magic faded, causing Kairi to move to catch her. "Naminé?"

"I-I'm fine," Naminé panted. "Magic and machinery are not meant to be used together. Or on each other. It's way too draining." She shook her head. "But we found the lift."

The ringtone had faded out by now, but as Kairi and Naminé stepped onto that steel plate, and it began to descend, she heard it pick up again. Despite the situation, she found her foot tapping to the tune.

 _Wa~tashi wa~, utau no ga suki  
Watashi~ ga so~u tsukurareta kara ja nai  
Ko~no koe~ o suki da to iu  
Anata~ ga yorokonde kureru kara_

They found themselves in what looked like a damaged war room, with the halves of a table sitting to either side. An uncomfortable-looking mattress was lying on the floor, and a bag was sitting at the foot of it - atop which was a flip-phone from which the music was emerging.

 _Zero to i~chi~ shika wakaranai  
Watashi~ ni 'ai~' wo oshiete kureta  
Sono hi~ kara wa~ta~shi no kokoro no naka  
Anata de mitaserate-ru~ no..._

 _Wa~tashi wa~, utau no_

The ringtone was cut off when Kairi picked up the phone and flipped it open. As Naminé started to search through the bag, Kairi barely had the chance to speak before Tifa's voice yelled _"Fangs! You there?"_

Kairi burst out laughing, drawing the witch's attention. "You call him 'Fangs'?" she accused.

 _"K-Kairi!?"_ An obviously flustered Tifa made to change the subject. _"Y-You found Sora?"_

"Not quite," she replied. "Care to tell me why you've got a war room hiding under your pinball machine?"

A moment of quiet. _"You found his phone in the old base?"_

"Sitting on a bag with his uniform in it," Kairi added as Naminé drew out a slate-grey jacket that belonged to the school uniform. "I think Sora's here in Midgar."

 _"What the hell?"_

Kairi shook her head. "No idea," she admitted. "We're gonna search the place. I'm gonna keep his phone on me, don't call."

 _"Got it."_

Tifa hung up, and Kairi flipped the phone shut as Naminé set the jacket back into Sora's bag. "Let's get back up," she prompted, "we're not gonna find him down here."

+x+x+x+

"How are two total strangers going to find an Edge local in the ruins of Midgar?"

Naminé's question had Kairi glancing around, half-thoughtful "I suppose just walking around and calling Sora's name isn't the best idea," she guessed. "Considering he's trying to hide and everything, I imagine he's not going to be too eager to answer us."

"Can't you feel him out?" Naminé asked.

Kairi turned, confused. "Feel what?"

Naminé gave her a look for a moment; then realization spread across her face. "Oh, Leviath, of course," she realized, setting a hand upon her head. "You're human, you wouldn't know about that."

"Know about _what_?" Kairi demanded.

The witch hummed. "I think it might be easier to just show you," she admitted. "Close your eyes."

Concerned, Kairi did so. "Okay, now what?"

" _Anger...!_ "

The call of magic caused Kairi to step back, worried - but nothing struck her. Her eyes remained closed, and yet Kairi could swear she saw... something - a light before her.

"You can feel it, can't you?" Naminé sounded aggravated. "There should be something in front of you. Can you feel it?"

"Naminé," Kairi prompted, starting to open her eyes, "what-?"

" _Eyes closed!_ "

Her eyes slammed shut again - against her volition - and when she tried to open them, she found she couldn't. "Naminé, what are you doing?"

"Can you feel that?" Naminé demanded. "The power should be right in front of you! Do you feel it!?"

"I-I see something," Kairi forced out. "It's like, light, or something... What are you-!"

" _End._ "

The light started to fade out; Kairi tried to open her eyes and found that she could. Naminé's chain was glowing, and she was panting slightly. "Sorry," the witch insisted. "I needed a little... emotion to make it easier for you."

Kairi reached up and rubbed her eyes. "What was that about?"

"All monsters give off... power," Naminé explained. "And most monsters are able to _feel_ that power if they try. If someone's feeling a strong emotion - like anger, or joy, or sadness - it excites their power and makes it easier for them to notice." She held a hand before her. "Since witches... aren't quite _monstrous_ , I needed to excite myself to make it easier for you to pick it up. Vampires have the strongest sensory, but if you don't know what you're looking for you can't feel it."

"Just don't do that again," Kairi prompted.

Naminé shook her head. "I won't," she insisted. "But knowing how to feel it out will help if we get close." She glanced around. "I think... with how ruined this place is, I think I might be able to work some sensory magic." Glancing at Kairi's stun-rifle; "What's the range on that thing?"

Kairi glanced at it. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "It's a prototype."

"If the shot can above the buildings," Naminé prompted, "I can affix a spell to the bullet and use that to detect anyone around here - easier than if I just tried to do it from down here. But this is still a city; I won't be able to tell who or what it is."

"That should be more than enough," Kairi assured her.

+x+x+x+

The shot _did_ get above most of the buildings, and Naminé picked up three people, all in one place. Kairi kept the stun rifle ready as Naminé followed the magic, and they found themselves arriving at what looked like a church. Its doors were in pieces at either side, and rows of bleachers led to what looked like a flower garden - at which was impaled a massive black sword. Kairi stepped in first, glancing around.

"There's no one here," she murmured.

"That doesn't make sense," Naminé murmured. "The magic resonated here. There should be someone-"

The two of them fell silent as footsteps approached; from a broken doorway at the other end of the hall emerged a young boy, in shredded black leggings and a red scarf, no shirt or shoes to be seen. His silver hair was messy and overgrown, and his eyes were a vibrant blue that was clear from across the hall. On seeing the two girls, he stepped back and took a defensive stance; then he dashed over to the flowered area, and without approaching them he thrust a fist forward.

Kairi couldn't react before she felt the blow slam into her stomach.

Naminé started as Kairi stumbled back, dropping her rifle and gripping the impact with one hand. "What the-!?"

Another girl emerged from the same doorway - jet-black hair and faded green eyes, with a black jacket, white shirt, and black skirt that had all seen better days. She quickly rushed up to the boy's side, and as he turned to her she set a hand on his shoulder.

A force seemed to wash over him, and Naminé watched with horror as his body changed. His face shifted, a menacing beak appearing upon his visage as his eyes were obscured by his hair - from under which they glowed. Black light flowed from his shoulder blades, taking the form of broad, feathered wings of deepest black. As Kairi raised her gaze, the boy drew his hand back; she barely had time to raise her hands before her in defense before he thrust a punch forward again.

This time, the impact _burst_ , an explosion of pure vacuum ripping out around Kairi and throwing Naminé into the seating.

 ** _Bite-Sized Monster Encyclopedia: Crow Tengu  
_** _A traditional Japanese monster with the beak and wings of a crow and the power to control the wind. They date much farther back than the familiar tengu with long human-like nosed. Crow tengu are known to be fond of children._

Kairi found herself on her knees as her own body began to change - in a matter altogether more subtle than that of the boy opposite her. Her hair darkened a thousand shades, like obsidian reflecting fire, and her skin paled as though she had suddenly been deprived of a year of sunlight. Her fingernails sharpened, elongated, ripping through the gloves of her uniform; her teeth shifted into fangs, and she raised her gaze towards the boy and girl across from her.

 _Don't hurt them._

The crack of a breaking chain emerged from under her sleeve, and her sea-blue eyes turned bloody red in an instant.

 _No promises._

One hand grabbed the stun rifle below her, and she raised it one-handed and pulled the trigger. The boy had already leapt aside as the dart left the barrel, slamming into the wall and _bursting_ with voltage. Kairi let the weapon fall and charged forward while it was still sparking, and as she neared the boy he leapt into the air, his wings spreading to keep him aloft; she leapt after him, and he quickly dropped to the ground, landing with a messy roll between the rows of bleachers as she approached him.

He thrust a punch forward and found it caught in Kairi's hand.

The explosion ripped up from _between palm and knuckle_ ; both of them were thrown back from the blast. Kairi flipped mid-flight, landing three-point on the wall behind the flower bed - and petals scattered in the air from the wake of her flight. The crow tengu was tumbling towards the door when Naminé caught him, having enough strength to keep him from flying out of the church but not enough to stop them both from collapsing to the ground in an unpleasant pile. Kairi shifted her grip on the wall and leapt forward, only for the girl to stand in her way; she thrust both hands forward, and a _fierce_ gale ripped up before her, halting Kairi's momentum such that she couldn't stop herself from landing face-down in the flower bed.

She got to her feet with a low growl, and raised a hand full of claws, charging forward...

...and finding them stopped on a necrous Key.

Kairi yelped in shock; her claws had collided with a gear of crimson and black, 130 degrees to form the teeth of a Keyblade. The shaft was formed from twin blades striking opposite ends of a bronze gear, and the guard was another black gear surrounding a hand with claws like pin tumbler keys. That hand belonged to a figure in red, black and gold, with hair that was black at the tips and fiery red near the base, and eyes of blood separated from the pupil by a ring of gold.

And a crown with a cross dangling from the choker around his neck.

"That's enough, Kairi."

* * *

Draco: Twenty-five chapters on deviantART, I kept trying to write markup.

The Bite-Sized Monster Encyclopedia got a bit heavy-handed with its mythology and history in the later entries. I usually try to avoid alterations to the entries, but I did take out a huge chunk in the middle of this one.

I'll be honest with you guys. I've been playing KHχ and I've been watching Sword Art Online. I'm sorely tempted to take what I'm doing here with Rosa-Vam and apply it to SAO. Alas, I know better; handling multiple AUs is not in my repertoire, and I don't want another set of surnames to keep track of.


	7. Cries of the Abandoned One

Draco: Forgot YanSim was a thing.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Cries of the Abandoned One**

 _"Who is it!?"_

 _Sora jumped worriedly when a loud, threatening yell responded to his knock on a door. "Um, Strife Delivery," he called. "I have a package for Ava Vulpes."_

 _The door opened just a crack, straining against a chain, and a girl in a hood glanced out. "From who?"_

 _"Invi... Anguish?" Sora stumbled. "I still don't think I'm reading this right. Agnis? Angus?"_

 _"Anguis?"_

 _"That's sounds a little more appropriate," Sora confirmed. Handing the girl a sheet and a pen; "Sign here, please." The girl withdrew into the house and unchained the door; Sora gave the form a quick look before handing her the - rather light - package. "Here you go."_

 _The girl only offered a quick, quiet thanks before closing the door again. Sora wasn't sure if she was shy or just expecting someone less friendly. With a roll of his shoulders, he started back towards the Hardy-Daytona, the sidecar of which was now empty. "Is that the last of them?" he asked his crown._

If she didn't have a response package, _Van replied,_ I think she was the last one.

 _Sora climbed on and reached into the sidecar. This destination, Daybreak Town, was a long drive from Edge, and after a briefing from the vampire on the four-dimensional tunnel, Cloud had asked him to do some running around for Strife Delivery to save on gas. Sora, who had been going crazy sitting around in Edge, was all too eager to get out of the house; alas, a few hours of picking up and dropping off and getting lost on an unfamiliar street layout - all for the same four people, more or less - had tired him out, and Sora was very much looking forward to the drive back to Midgar._

 _"Aced to Gula, Gula to Ira, Gula to Invi, Ira to Invi, Ira to Aced, Invi to Gula... and Invi to Ava was the last one from the call-ins," Sora confirmed. "Nothing outgoing from her. And she didn't have a response, thank Baham-"_

 _"Wait!"_

 _Sora winced when he heard Ava's door swing open, and his rosario gleamed._ I don't think Bahamut appreciates your thanks, _Van observed, amusement clear on his voice._

 _"Oh, shut up," Sora muttered as the girl approached._

 _"What?"_

 _"Not you, sorry," the vampire insisted, turning to her. "Did you have a response package? I should warn you that the charge is on you."_

 _Ava shook her head. "No, that's not why I stopped you," she insisted. "I just wanted to ask you... and warn you."_

 _Sora narrowed his gaze. "Warn me about what?"_

 _She glanced around, as though worried they would be overheard... or overseen. Sora found his left hand reaching low on the other side of the bike._

 _"The other night, I heard... what sounded like a gang fight," Ava told him. "Somewhere thereabouts." She beckoned back down the street the way he had come. "Did you see anything suspicious on your way here?"_

 _"I'm from out of town," Sora admitted. "I wouldn't know what is or is not suspicious."_

 _"Did anything look damaged?" Ava elaborated. "I heard what sounded like explosions. And a girl screaming."_

Explosions? In a town like this? It can't be big enough for a gang war of **that** scale. _"I did see an old place that looked abandoned," he admitted, "but nothing broken like a bomb had gone off."_

 _Ava lowered her gaze. "Alright. I just wanted you to be careful."_

 _"Appreciated," Sora assured her._

 _She quickly retreated into her building, and Sora glanced around curiously; then he peeled into a quick U-turn and took off down the way he came. His eyelids drooped as he reached out with his senses, looking for anything... monstrous._

 _There, he did find something - in the very abandoned building he had mentioned to Ava. It was a mansion of impressive size; the windows were cracked, and a balcony had long collapsed. Sora reached into the sidecar as he called his silver Keyblade to hand, and once it was settled in his grip he drew it out as though it had always been there. Hooking the teeth of the weapon over his shoulder, he stepped up to the door, and when he found the door's lock was holding firm despite its age, he tapped it with his Key to unlock it._

 _A moment's pause... and then the door tumbled inside. It had been held in the frame by nothing but the lock and friction, and friction alone wasn't enough._

 _Worried, Sora stepped inside, seizing his weapon in both hands. "Hello?" There was a short entrance hall just inside the door, with coat hooks and boot racks that implied the previous owners had seen a lot of company. "Anyone?"_

 _No response._

 _"I know you're here!" he called. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. I'm just worried..."_

 _He fell quiet when he emerged into a larger, rectangular hallway, with a second-floor balcony all the way round... or at least, **formerly** all the way round. Several chunks had been blown out of the balcony, and eighty percent of the foothold along one wall was missing entirely. A large mattress was lying on the floor before him, and he prodded it with his Keyblade to preemptively trigger any traps before stepping around it._

 _Footsteps from across the hall drew his attention. A young boy - much younger than himself - had arrived at the doorway opposite the entrance. His silver hair danced messily about his eyes, and a red scarf draped his shoulders; his black leggings had been torn into shorts. He had no shirt, and despite the rubble scattered about the room he was in, he wore no shoes; his body gave away meals he had missed, and his blue eyes burned with something fierce._

 _"Hi," Sora called warily._

 _The boy glared at him and thrust a fist forward; Sora reflexively braced his Keyblade to catch the punch and **felt** the impact as it clanged against his weapon._

A crow tengu? _Van realized._

 _"I'm not gonna hurt you!" Sora repeated. "I just want to know what you're doing here."_

 _The boy took a fighting stance. "They all say that," he protested. "But they end up hurting us anyway! You're another one of them, aren't you!"_

 _Sora shook his head. "I'm from out of town," he insisted. "Someone told me there had been something blowing up around here. Was that you?"_

 _"Why would I be using bombs?" the boy demanded._

 _"No, your punches," Sora corrected._

 _The boy looked surprised._

 _Sora slacked his body for just a moment before he heard the groan of a wooden railing being leaned against... or vaulted over. His gaze went up to the balcony to see a young girl leaping from above, landing roughly on the mattress he had gone around. The boy threw a punch while Sora's back was turned, and it collided between his shoulder blades; Sora tumbled forward before the girl could move, and he ended up landing on her._

 _Her hand connected with his rosario._

 _His Keyblade vanished from his grip._

 _A **surge** of power ripped up around him, and the vampire forced himself back as his body started to change. His hair darkened to black, with crimson rising from the base of each strand but never reaching the tip - like fire in the darkness. His nails sharpened into claws, and cuts dug into the sides, making them reminiscent of pin tumbler keys; as his mouth opened, his teeth sharpened into fangs. His wide eyes quickly faded from blue to gold for an instant; then the gold retracted into a ring dividing his pupils from his bloody red irises._

 _Van stumbled back as the cross of his rosario gleamed bright against his crown, the chain loop holding tight to the single links hanging from his choker._

 _"What the...!?"_

 _His gaze washed over his body, astonished; then he turned to the girl lying on that mattress, looking like she was ready to run._

 _"How did you do that?"_

+x+x+x+

The blasting of a crow tengu throwing punches drew his attention; Van glanced down through the damaged roof of the church to find his charges were fighting. The girl stepped away; then a crack like a gunshot sounded, and the boy moved as something flew past where he had just been. It slammed into the wall of the church and sparked, and the boy barely had time to move before someone was there - someone with dark red hair and pale skin.

The tengu evaded, but Kairi was quick; the next punch he tried to throw was caught in his palm, and the blast sent both of them flying. The girl got in Kairi's way when she tried to leap again, and as she tumbled into the flowers Van made to interfere. Blood-tinged darkness flowed from his hand as his geared Keyblade appeared there, and he leapt down as Kairi tried to charge, moving the Key to meet her strike.

Her claws collided with the teeth, and her momentum halted as Van touched down.

"That's enough, Kairi."

Kairi pulled away, shocked. " _Van!?_ " she cried. "How...!?"

Shifting at the church entrance caused him to turn as the tengu boy leapt back, wings spread - and a witch with a chain around her arm got to her feet. "Ephemer, enough! You don't-"

"-need to fight them. They're friends."

The sudden change in his voice had Kairi double-taking. Van was fading out; his hair shifted to an earthen brown, and his claws retracted as his fangs blunted. The gold in his eyes expanded to blot out the red before fading to a bright blue.

"...Sora?"

Naminé turned towards him. "There you are," she groaned.

Sora sighed, setting a hand against his forehead. "I told the headmaster to get you guys to leave me alone."

The tengu, Ephemer, hopped the bleachers and landed before him as Naminé approached them. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Sora insisted. Van's Keyblade vanished in a flurry of bloody shadows as he turned to Kairi. "Why did you come here?"

"Anybody who hides his face with eyes like that is suspicious as all Feymarch," Naminé protested. "We don't trust him."

Kairi stepped back. "What's going on?" she asked. "Van was just here. How did you...?"

Sora shook his head. "It's a long story."

"It's a long night."

+x+x+x+

 _"Yeah."_

 _"Yeah." The vampire couldn't help but echo Cloud's greeting. "You still haven't learned?"_

 _"Sora?" Cloud sounded surprised. "What's going on?"_

 _"I..." He cleared his throat with a heavy cough. "I might be a little longer than I thought. These guys had me running packages like crazy, and this rush hour is too big for this town. I'm gonna need to gas up the Hardy before I come back, but it's gonna be a while with this traffic."_

 _Cloud chuckled. "Don't worry about it," he insisted. "Business deliveries always take forever. If you're not staying overnight, don't sweat it."_

 _"Alright. See you."_

 _Van closed Sora's phone and turned to the children he'd found in the abandoned building they were now in the back yard of. "You two want to give me your names?"_

 _"I'm Skuld," the girl murmured. "He's Ephemer."_

 _The tengu boy was still wary. "Are you... like us?" he asked._

 _A click of his tongue gave away his uncertainty. "Well, I'm a vampire," he admitted. "So I am a monster - like you. But you..." Here he turned to Skuld as he added, "I don't think you're quite the same."_

 _Skuld angled her head. "What's different about me?" she asked._

 _"You don't feel like a monster," Van told her. "You feel... human."_

 _"She is," Ephemer confirmed. "Or, she was, I think. But she's got magic. Doesn't that make her a monster too?"_

 _Van shook his head. "I don't think it's that simple," he admitted. "Look, standing around wondering isn't gonna do much. Do you two have parents in the cit-"_

 _He cut himself off when Skuld moved back very quickly. Ephemer's gaze went down. "She's... No," he insisted. "We're not going to her parents."_

 _"O...kay." Van turned to the tengu boy. "And you?"_

 _"I lived in an orphanage not far from here," he replied. "But the place got shut down after... some things happened."_

 _"Things like you and me?"_

 _Ephemer didn't respond._

 _Van sighed. "Look," he prompted, "you two hiding out in an old place like that isn't gonna go very well. Why don't you two come with me? I know a safe place."_

 _Skuld gave him a look. "Is it in this town?"_

 _"No."_

 _"Then, we'll come with you."_

+x+x+x+

 _By the time they hit the tunnel, Van had faded out; Sora was the one driving as they arrived in Midgar. He quickly maneuvered his way around the wrecked buildings and to a site Cloud had visited time and time again - the church where he had first met Aerith, so long ago._

 _Ephemer and Skuld clambered out of the sidecar, turning to the driver as he hopped off. "Uh, you didn't give us your name," the tengu boy reminded him._

 _"Well, **I** 'm Sora," the vampire replied._

 _"And what about the other guy?" Skuld asked._

 _Sora was relieved that she'd figured that out and saved him the trouble. "Van," he replied. "Look, um, Skuld, how were you able to... do that?"_

 _Skuld angled her head. "What do you mean?"_

 _"Well..." Sora set a hand on his rosario. "Van normally can't come out unless this comes off," he explained. "But you... when I fell on you, he showed up. How did that happen?"_

 _Ephemer spoke up at this point. "She can do that to me, too,_ _" he explained. Turning to Skuld; "Show him."_

 _As Sora watched, Skuld set a hand on Ephemer's shoulder; a curious light washed over him, and she stepped back as he started to change. His face became a dark beak, his eyes becoming faint lights under his hair, and from his back emerged a pair of broad black wings._

 _The rosario gleamed._ Why does this look familiar? _Van wondered._

 _Sora shook his head. "Well, enough of that for now," he insisted. "You guys come inside. When was the last time you two ate?"_

 _"Three days ago," Ephemer murmured weakly._

 _"Then you guys wait in here," he told them. "Promise you're not gonna wander around the city. I'm gonna get you two a meal, okay?"_

 _"Alright."_

+x+x+x+

"So that's why you were gone..."

Kairi shook her head at hearing Sora's story; the five of them were sitting in the flower bed in the church. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I still don't know what's going on," Sora insisted. "I think Skuld is... what did you call Ace and them?"

He turned to Naminé, who only sighed. "Magi-human," she said slowly, pronouncing the prefix like _magic_. "Arcane properties added to a human body. And as for how she's getting Van out... That sounds like a low-level Lilith pulse."

Ephemer angled his head. "A what?"

"Lilith," Naminé explained. "It's a magical action that unleashes a monster's true form. Higher-level pulses can completely strip away their inhibitions and show them at their worst, but a low-level pulse just strips away a human guise." She rolled up one of her sleeves - on the arm that didn't have her chain - and held the hand out towards Skuld. "Here, touch me."

Warily, Skuld reached forward and set her hand against Naminé's wrist. A brief flash of light draped Naminé, and Ephemer's eyes widened as magic coursed through her; her platinum blonde hair shone bright gold, her eyes became voids of white, and her bones were glowing through her skin where her uniform wasn't covering her. Naminé pulled her hand away as the pulse faded, and she quickly drew her hand back as it faded.

"I have _never_ seen you do that," Kairi accused.

"A trained witch can do that at will," Naminé explained, "but without experience it only happens briefly when we're exposed to a pulse. That shows that our magic is at full force." Turning to Sora, she added, "Because your rosario is still equipped, the pulse only lets Van out for a while. A few minutes out, and he starts to get weaker; a few more, and his senses dull; a few more still, and he fades out entirely."

Sora nodded. "That sounds about right," he confirmed. "He's only out for about an hour at a time."

Kairi sighed. "Well," she prompted, turning to Skuld, "why don't you tell us why you guys were hiding away in the first place?"

Skuld lowered her gaze. "I don't... want to talk about it," she insisted.

"But-"

"She said she doesn't want to talk about it." Ephemer sounded angry, and when Kairi fell quiet he got to his feet. A hand was offered to Skuld, and once they were both standing they headed towards the back of the church.

Sora shook his head. "My trip to Daybreak was a month before school started," he told the girls. "They haven't been willing to talk about it since we got here."

Naminé hummed. "Her magic feels... different," she mused. "It's not as grounded as a 626. But they're too young; their bodies wouldn't have survived a 109."

"A what?" Kairi interjected.

"Slow down," Sora insisted.

The witch closed her eyes in self-reprimand. "There are a few different ways to apply magical properties to a body," she explained. "The 'six-twenty-six slumber' involves draping the body in magic while it sleeps, six hundred and twenty-six times. It only works at a young age; otherwise it doesn't hold. Alternatively, the 'one-oh-nine needles' involves piercing the body with one hundred and nine edges of woven magic threads. But that is VERY taxing on the body; young ones can't survive it, let alone a young human."

"What other ways are there?" Kairi asked.

"The 'thirteen blades' is the only one that would still be around," Naminé replied. "Collecting thirteen different witches' casting tools, and having a fourteenth spellcaster transfer the magical energy within them to the target." After a moment, "I've heard a few superstitious rumors about a 'four-one-two prayer', but it sounds like an old wives' tale. And it's definitely not suited to human use, it involves fasting for over a year."

Sora shook his head. "None of those sound right," he observed. "The way Ephemer was talking about it, it sounds like she got it all of a sudden. And she doesn't seem to have much control over those... Lilith pulses."

Naminé lowered her gaze. "It can't be," she murmured. "It's been outlawed since the Coronet Era. The art is long lost. It can't be..."

Kairi turned to her, worried. "It can't be what?"

"Gem summoning," Naminé replied. "A jewel is created with magic, embedded in the victim's skin. Once the jewel is applied, the body becomes afflicted with a fast-acting magic poisoning. After it's run its course, the one who summoned the jewel has full control over the magical properties of the victim, and they can even remotely manipulate their body with enough focus. The victim can usually cast on their own if it doesn't contradict the summoner's direction. It hasn't been used in thousands of years. When the side effects were fully realized, it was deemed foul heresy."

"Side effects?" Sora sounded worried. "What do you mean, side effects?"

A moment's hesitation, as though Naminé didn't want to believe it herself.

"...The body is temporally frozen," she said finally. "The user never ages - mentally or physically. Muscles don't strengthen. Learning doesn't take hold. Emotions don't develop. Memories can't chain together properly. Wounds heal at a tenth the pace. It takes about a year for the effects to manifest, but it's devastating - especially to a human life. And the moment the jewel is broken, the lost years catch up to them all at once. In the Coronet Era, warriors who had been thought temporally dislocated were discovered to have undergone gem summoning, and when their gems were shattered in battle they turned to dust in their armour."

Sora let his gaze fall. "You mean Skuld...?"

Kairi glanced at Naminé. "If it is there... could you find it on her?"

"I don't think so," the witch admitted. "There's no magic capable of affecting a summoned gem - including sensing or detecting it. Only physical means can even scratch them. You'd have to search her by eyesight."

"Dammit," Sora muttered. "Alright, you two should head back to Yokai. I'm gonna see if I can get Skuld to open up. Or at least get Ephemer to stop punching me for asking."

+x+x+x+

The girls were sleepy the next morning (a late night in Edge will do that), but not missing classes served to mitigate any suspicion aroused from it. Riku, Roxas, and Xion were briefed on what transpired in Edge, and Xion and Roxas volunteered to head back the following night to speak with Sora.

That plan was cut short while they were working on the next issue of _Yokai Times_ ; Leon stepped into the clubroom with his cell phone against his chest. "Um, Naminé?" he prompted.

"What is it?"

"Could you ask Sora where he got my phone number?" Leon demanded, handing her the cell.

Naminé rolled her eyes as she accepted it. "This might take a while," she observed. "If you have somewhere to be, might want to get going."

Leon seemed grateful, and quickly took off; Kairi got up to close the door behind him, and Naminé quickly tapped the screen. "You're on speaker, vampire," she called, setting the phone on the table, "tell us you've got some good news."

 _"Did you tell **everyone**?"_ Van protested.

"What you were doing, and all the extra details," Xion confirmed. "That's what you get for trying to sneak out on us."

An irritable growl on the other end. _"Do you guys want the bad news first?"_

Worried glances were exchanged around the clubroom. "Yeah," Riku prompted. "Give us the bad news first."

 _"I found a jewel."_

* * *

Draco: You know, just once I'd like to get through a large-scale fanfic and not eff something up while I'm trying to add a chapter.

The fact that I'm running out of Fantasies to make use of (and having not played XV yet) makes it incredibly fortunate that I've been putting time into Kingdom Hearts χ because that gives me a whole new set of people to make use of. A set I am burning through at a rapid pace.


	8. A Void Awaits

Draco: Okay, Hyrule 100 AGC is finally wearing thin, let's get back in this thing.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 8: A Void Awaits**

Despite the ruined state of the Midgar church, sleep came easily; a back room with several beds was completely intact, save for the doorway, and Skuld and Ephemer had been calling nights early since their first sunset there. After Kairi and Naminé had gone back to Yokai, Sora was waiting for the younglings to fall asleep when _Electric Angel_ rang out from the flower bed; his cell phone had been in Kairi's pocket, and fallen out when she had been fighting Skuld.

With a groan, he picked up the device and flicked it open, raising it to his ear. "How much trouble am I in?" he asked.

 _"Well, you're never getting Fenrir again without a schedule and a curfew,"_ Cloud replied. _"What the hell are you doing in Midgar?"_

"I'll give you the full briefing as soon as I know what's going on," Sora insisted. Then, when Cloud sounded like he was going to retaliate; "And don't you dare wolf over here, this is Yokai stuff and you guys still aren't back into shape."

Cloud fell quiet, and there was a shuffling as someone took the phone from him. _"Fangs, is that you this time?"_

Sora sighed. "Yeah, Tifa, it's me."

 _"Look, if you don't want to tell us what's going on right now, fine,"_ she conceded. _"But let us know if you need something, okay? Anything we can do."_

"Well, I don't suppose you guys have Leon's cell number, do you?"

 _"I'm sure Cloud's got it in his paperwork somewhere,"_ Tifa assured him. _"We'll text you when we find it."_

"Alright. See you."

He flicked the phone shut and slipped it into his pocket, stepping into the back room. Skuld and Ephemer were both limp on their beds; a quick reach for his senses told him that Ephemer really was asleep, but Skuld being magi-human meant he couldn't feel a thing. Warily, Sora stepped towards her, kneeling beside her bed.

Her eyes opened.

Sora sighed. "Not sleepy?" he asked quietly.

Skuld only shook her head; then, without a word, her hand reached forward.

The vampire leaned back. "Not here," he prompted. "I don't want to wake Ephemer up. If you wanna talk to Van, let's go out to the flowers." She slowly got to her feet and followed Sora out into the flower bed. Once they were out, Sora knelt down to give her a better reach.

To his surprise, Skuld shook her head. "It's not him," she insisted. "I wanted to talk to you."

Sora angled his head. "Then why were you...?"

He fell quiet when she set a hand on his forehead - and he heard her voice speak in his mind. _Can you hear me?_

"How are you doing that?" Sora asked.

 _I can do it with Ephemer, too,_ Skuld mused. _I was trying to talk to you like this._ Then, pulling her hand away, "I heard you talking with your friends. About my magic."

Sora lowered his gaze. "I'm sorry for being rude, but we're just trying to help you."

Skuld shook her head. "It's okay," she murmured. "I just... you mentioned something about gems?"

"Yeah," Sora confirmed, worried about the direction this was going. "Have you... met anyone else like you? Someone who can use magic?"

"No, I haven't," Skuld insisted. "But I..."

She fell quiet for a moment; then she turned away, and as Sora watched she rolled up the back of her shirt.

There, resting on the base of her spine... was a shining emerald.

"Where did you get this?" Sora asked.

"In Daybreak Town," Skuld murmured. "My mom saw Ephemer fighting with some bullies one day. He was hurting them without touching them. When she tried to tell people, everyone said she was crazy, or she was seeing things wrong. But then she met a man. He said there were people like him all over. He asked if she wanted to know who they were."

Sora carefully set his hand on the jewel. "Did he put this on you?"

Skuld shook her head. "When my mom said yes, he gave her a bracelet and told her to wear it to bed. When I woke up the next day, my whole body felt like pins and needles... but it hurt a lot more. And my mom found this." She unrolled her shirt, and Sora pulled his hand away as she turned. "I felt better by dinner, but the gem was still there. The man came by, and he told my mom to find the boy who was hurting people."

"You found Ephemer again?"

"Mm-hmm." Skuld looked worried. "When I touched him, he changed, his wings and beak appeared. My mom was screaming. And when she remembered what the man said about people like him all over, she started getting mad. She wasn't going to meet with anyone unless they let me touch them." She shook her head. "She started yelling at me all the time. I ran away. I found Ephemer in that old house. And then you came and found us."

Sora got to his feet. "How long were you guys there before I found you?"

Skuld lowered her gaze. "A week," she replied.

 _It can't have been long enough for the time to hurt her,_ Van observed. _But we can't just break the jewel if there's something the witch hasn't told us about._

"Alright," Sora prompted. "I'm going to tell Naminé and Kairi about it tomorrow, okay? You try and get some sleep."

"Okay." Skuld made her way back to the bedroom, and Sora ran his fingers through his hair.

 _Who has control over her magic?_

+x+x+x+

Cloud had texted him Leon's number by the time they got up the next morning. Sora made sure the younglings were up and eating before he made the call; unfortunately, getting to close trying to rouse Skuld had ended up subjecting him to another one of her Lilith pulses.

Leon picked up in two rings. _"Squall Leonhart?"_

Van cleared his throat roughly, imitating Sora's voice to avoid raising the professor's suspicion. "Leon?"

 _"Sora?"_ Leon sounded confused. _"How do you know my number?"_

"I don't think that's important," Van insisted. "Look, it's club period, right? Are you in the news clubroom?"

 _"I'm busy running errands for Rinoa,"_ Leon replied. _"I'm on my way past, why?"_

"Just get the artist for me," Van told him.

After a few murmurs between him and Naminé, there was a noticeable cut in the feed before the witch's voice called; _"You're on speaker, vampire, tell us you've got some good news."_

Van scoffed, dropping the Sora tone. "Did you tell **everyone**?" he protested, making his way out into the flower bed while Ephemer and Skuld were eating.

 _"What you were doing, and all the extra details,"_ Xion confirmed, _"that's what you get for trying to sneak out on us."_

An irritable growl from the vampire. "Do you guys want the bad news first?"

A brief pause. _"Yeah,"_ Riku prompted, _"give us the bad news first."_

"I found a jewel."

+x+x+x+

"WHAT!?"

The entire news club was on their feet with that simultaneous outburst. _"Slow down,"_ Van protested from the other end. _"Skuld told me about it. Looks like she's only had it for... a couple months, tops."_

"Don't even think about it," Naminé insisted. "Even if it hasn't been there long enough for her to suffer the effects too much, breaking a summoned gem can be devastating to the host body. If y-" She fell quiet when Van started chuckling. "This isn't a joke, bloodsucker!"

 _"I'm sorry,"_ Van insisted. _"You said 'host body', and I had a stupid memory come up."_ He gave a short cough to fight off the laughter before speaking again. _"What can we do?"_

"First things first," Naminé replied. "We need to find out who's got the control over her magic. Did she tell you where she got it?"

 _"Daybreak Town,"_ Van confirmed. _"But I don't think I can bring them there. They didn't want to hang around back when I first brought them here, and Ephemer doesn't know that I-"_

 _"Ephemer doesn't know what?"_

Worried glances were exchanged around the clubroom as Van yelped. _"Frickin' Odin, kid, make some noise! I would've cut you if I had my-"_

 _"What were you talking about?"_ Ephemer sounded angry.

Skuld's voice sounded in the background, though from too far away to make it out. Quiet conversation between the younglings; then Skuld spoke into the phone. _"Miss Naminé, is that you?"_

"Yes," Naminé confirmed.

 _"If you know how to get rid of this gem, I'll come anywhere you want."_

The phone changed hands, and Sora was the one who spoke. _"What's the plan?"_

"I don't need to be there," Naminé told the vampire. "I can set up a spell ahead of time. Go to Daybreak Town. Xion and Roxas can-"

 _"Not Roxas,"_ Sora interrupted. _"Not Kairi, either."_

"Why not?" Roxas demanded.

Sora was quiet. _"Skuld is bringing out Van through my rosario. If she touches your holy locks..."_

Kairi turned to Naminé, and the witch bowed her head. "A Lilith pulse does bring out a monster's true form," she admitted. "That's probably for the best."

"Me and Xion will come," Riku replied. "Naminé can prepare the spell, and we'll meet you in Daybreak Town after classes."

 _"Alright,"_ Sora confirmed. _"Coming into town from the tunnel, there's a Pandemona at the first intersection you'll come to. We'll meet there."_

"See you then," Xion prompted.

Sora hung up, and Naminé quickly grabbed Leon's cell off the table.

+x+x+x+

Riku could very nearly have said that he was at the bus stop the moment class was out - which raised the question of why the bus was _waiting for him_ when he got there. Xion found him leaning on the dead tree with Soul Eater in hand, and the two of them got on in short order.

"Daybreak Town, please and thank you," Xion prompted.

The driver nodded and started driving, and the two of them took the backmost seats. As the bus entered the tunnel, the snowgirl turned to Riku. "Can I ask you a question that's kinda stupid?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at her. "Um, sure."

"What _is_ that?" Xion levelled a finger on Riku's dragon wingblade. "I mean, you invoke it like a Keyblade, but it's _not_. What is it?"

"I'm not a hundred percent sure," Riku admitted. "We had a visitor in Altar Cave, about a month before my freshman year at Yokai. This was his sword, and he offered it to the first guy who could beat him. Guess who I was."

Xion's gaze furrowed. "You're swinging that thing around without even knowing what it is?"

Riku scoffed. "I would take a lot less offense to that if I had-"

His protest was cut off when the bus _lurched_ to a stop; both he and Xion had their cheeks slammed into the seats before them. "Okay, ow," Xion murmured. Calling to the bus driver up front; "What's going on?"

"Um."

The two news clubbers exchanged glances before making their way to the front. They were about ten seconds out of the four-dimensional tunnel, and there was a massive traffic jam extending out ahead of them. Xion gave a concerned hum before grabbing the handle by the driver's seat and throwing the doors open. "We'll get there faster on foot," she prompted. "You head back to Yokai. Sora can give us a ride back."

"Very well."

She followed Riku off the bus, and the driver quickly brought the vehicle into a U-turn and headed back into the tunnel. Xion took one look at the line of cars and turned to the werewolf. "Can you go fast enough that they won't notice us and not break my neck?"

"Let's get a bit away from the road, first," Riku prompted. "Then we can talk speed."

+x+x+x+

Traffic aside, they found no trouble in meeting Sora. The jam seemed to be caused by a collision at the intersection Sora had mentioned, although nobody seemed to be seriously injured - judging from the quartet of bickering drivers standing around the crash. A Hardy-Daytona with a sidecar was parked outside the Pandemona, and Sora, Skuld, and Ephemer were waiting in a booth near the entrance, sharing a Brutal Sanction platter; the vampire hailed his classmates down, causing them to slip into the opposite seat.

"You got Naminé's spell?" Sora asked.

Riku nodded, reaching into his pocket. "Right here," he prompted, drawing out what looked like a watch without a clock face. "We're gonna want to find somewhere out of the way to pull it off, though."

"We could always head back to the place me and Ephemer were staying," Skuld mused. "It's been abandoned for ages. It's not too far from here."

"That sounds a little less conspicuous than a back alley," Xion admitted. "Sure, let's go."

"Hold on," Sora prompted. His rosario was gleaming. "What's it _do?_ Naminé didn't say anything about how to get this jewel off of her, she just said not to break it on purpose."

"She gave me specific instructions," Riku replied. "I touch this to the gem, and it'll seek out whoever's got control over her magic. Once we find the source, I set it to neutralize the commands that her arcana is receiving. After that's done, Skuld should be able to guide the magic out of her body - then the gem will separate from her entirely."

Ephemer hummed. "What do we do if we can't find the source?"

Riku shook his head. "That can't happen," he insisted. "It tells me _exactly_ where we need to go to find it. Doesn't matter if it's here or the other side of the world. We _will_ find it - one way or another."

The tengu boy leaned forward. "Promise?" he accused.

"Promise."

+x+x+x+

Riku, Skuld, and Ephemer were able to cram together in the sidecar without anyone taking a Lilith pulse; Sora and Xion were able to semi-comfortably double up on the body of the bike. They arrived at the building Skuld had mentioned in short order, finding it just a much a wreck as when Sora had arrived before. Once they were there, Skuld rolled up her shirt enough to bare the gem at the base of her spine, and Riku slipped the watch over his hand so that the blank face rested in his palm before pressing it lightly against the emerald.

"One, crest, two, crest, three, crest, four, crest, five."

He quickly drew off the watch and turned the face to himself; Skuld let her shirt fall as he got to his feet, turning to see Sora and Xion's raised eyebrows. "What's with that count?" Xion demanded.

"That's how Naminé counts down for timed magic," Riku explained. "When she told me 'a count of five', I figured that'd be the safest way to make sure it was on there long enough. Here we go!" The face was starting to shine, and as the gathered monsters looked at the watch they saw a stunning blue surface with a single white arrow. "It's like a compass. Kind of. We follow the arrow and it'll take us to whoever's got Skuld's magic."

"What if they're above us, or something?" Ephemer asked.

In response, Riku tilted the watch. The arrow was a three-dimensional image, pointing exactly where they needed to go - at any angle.

"I guess that kinda works." Ephemer narrowed his gaze. "Wait, but how far in that direction? You said it would tell us where, but it doesn't say how far it is."

Xion narrowed her gaze. "I've seen something a little like this before," she murmured. "If we..." She reached forward and tapped the face of the watch, causing the image to change; it now read **700 paces**.

Riku flinched. "Seven hundred _paces_?" he groaned. "Really, Naminé?"

An amused smile rose on Ephemer's face. "Wait, what if _I'm_ holding it?" He grabbed the watch from Riku's hand, and as it was transferred to a kid half his size, the display changed to **1400 paces**. "Okay, that's kinda clever."

Skuld giggled as Riku took it back. "Seven hundred paces," he repeated. "Whoever it is is still in Daybreak Town, I think. But I'm not walking that." He tapped the face again, changing it back to the arrow. "Let's get back on the bike. We'll find them soon enough."

+x+x+x+

"Get her!"

A woman in a black trenchcoat was fleeing through a large, abandoned construction site. The massive half-finished building into which she had fled was proving disadvantageous; her pursuers were far more agile than she was, and her only hope was that she could get out and bar the door before her pursuers found her.

Alas, no sooner did she sight an exit than a heavy figure dropped down from outside. He was built like a brute, and his face was covered by the mask of a bear; in his hand was a massive, heavy weapon with a cane-like head, yet he held it in one hand as he stood to bar her way. Panicking, the woman took a sharp corner, finding an unglassed window through which she was able to vault - but the moment her feet hit the ground, something slammed into her from behind. She rolled across the ground, finding a tall figure in a serpentine mask standing there; closed in her grip was a long, waved weapon with a curling hook at tip.

"You've put on quite a show, here," she observed. "But I think you've run long enough."

"What do you even want form me?!" the woman demanded. "I told you, I don't know where she went!"

The cobra stepped forward. "Where she has gone is irrelevant," she insisted. "The fact of the matter is that you have done something unforgivable. And that is why we are here." She raised her weapon heavenward, and the woman in the trenchcoat only had time to raise her hands before her before it was swung down.

And slammed into another.

"Well, damn."

A new figure stood to the snake's side, holding the weapon in his right hand; a figure with jet-black hair in a mess of spikes.

"Remind me not to get on the bad side of child services."

The snake had no chance to react before Van moved his geared Keyblade; her own weapon was dragged over her head, and her body was pulled back before he unhooked it from the teeth and slammed it into her legs, throwing her into a flip. He quickly glanced at Naminé's watch, looped around his other hand; the arrow was pointing to the woman in the trenchcoat, and when he tapped the face, the display gave a distance of **3 paces**.

"It's you," he mused, glancing at the woman. "You're the one with her magic."

"What are you talking about?"

The cobra-masked woman managed to get to her feet, bracing her weapon - her _Keyblade_ \- before her. "Who are you?" she demanded.

Van chuckled, turning to face her fully. "Someone from the-"

"Wait, is that...?!" The snake's exclamation caught him off-guard. "That's a rosary seal! But how are you...!?"

Fast footsteps from above caused Van to raise his gaze. From the second floor of the half-finished building leapt a lithe figure in a leopard mask. He had a minute figure closed between two fingers, but as the vampire watched his grip parted from it. A light flowed from his hands, and Van was shocked to see the small figure - a token on a chain - _catch_ on something in that light; as the shine faded, a Keyblade appeared in his own grip, with a mess of spikes to form the teeth. He dove down, Key braced in both hands; Van only raised his geared weapon, catching it cross against the shaft one-handed.

Pure, raw power surged up around him as the connection landed, giving the leopard a sharp notice of what he was getting into.

"I have _got_ to try that sometime."

He quickly thrust the leopard's weapon up, leaving him helpless just long enough for Van to slam a horizontal slash into his midsection, throwing him towards the cobra - who, Van noticed, had dismissed her own Key. She had managed to get away, and Van raised his other hand to his mouth, loosing an extended whistle. As the leopard got to his feet, the cobra raised a hand to warn him down. That proved wise enough when a blur shot through the nearby window, and Riku skidded to a stop next to Van with Soul Eater in hand.

"One inside, one on the roof, one around the corner," he warned Van, beckoning to the left.

"I'd noticed," Van reprimanded. "Where's the snowgirl?"

"Bringing the Hardy around the other side," Riku replied.

Van stepped forward. "So," he mused. "You wanna tell me what you lot are doing messing with humans?"

The woman in the trenchcoat had gotten to her feet by now. "What?" she demanded. "What do you mean, 'humans'?"

"She can't be," the leopard protested. "We've detected a gem summoning here in Daybreak Town. When we narrowed down the source, it was on her."

"You need to open your other eyes," Van reprimanded. "The only monsters here are you and us. Wolf, stop her."

Riku surged back. The woman, who was attempting run, quickly found her hands pinned behind her back - and her body turned to face the other way. As she was dragged forward, the roar of a motorcycle caused the leopard and cobra to turn to see a Hardy-Daytona coming around the side - Xion was at the handlebars, and Skuld and Ephemer still in the sidecar.

Ephemer panicked when the bike came to a stop, and he saw who was there. "You-!?"

"Mom!?" Skuld exclaimed.

The trenchcoat woman was horrified at what she saw. "Skuld, what the hell are you-!?"

"You shut your mouth." Van's tone had gone dark, and the sheer force of her words silenced the woman in an instant. "Humans like you are the reason we hide in the first place."

"Hold on," the cobra protested. "What do you mean, she's human?"

"I told you to look with your other eyes," Van insisted. Xion and the younglings were getting off the bike as he spoke. "There is nothing monstrous about her - not even halfway." Riku held the mother's left hand forward, revealing a bracelet bound around her wrist; Van quickly reached forward and ripped it off. "You seem to know your magic - tell me what you find on this."

He flung it towards the two, and the leopard quickly dismissed his Keyblade - leaving the chain behind to fall to the ground - and caught it in his grip. "Wait a minute... this is!"

The cobra set her hand on it. "It can't be..."

"I think it is," Van confirmed, glancing at the watch around his hand. The arrow was still pointing towards Skuld's mother. "Regardless, she's still the source," he admitted, holding out the watch to Riku. "You can cut her off."

"Cut what off?" Skuld's mother demanded. "What are you doing?"

"Don't worry," Riku insisted, turning the wind on the watch's side before taking it from Van. "This won't hurt unless you make it."

The woman started to struggle. "What? No! Stay away from-!"

A flash of light burst out where Riku was holding onto her; the werewolf yelped, stumbling away. Skuld gave a cry of pain, falling to the ground and causing the gathered monsters to start. Her mother quickly started fleeing, and Ephemer acted fast; a thrown punch slammed into her leg, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground again as Riku started towards her.

"No, don't!"

Skuld's cry came too late; at newmoon speed, Riku was already within arm's reach of the mother when the earth surged up in front of him; he slammed into the wall and was thrown back as it shattered from the impact. Xion hurled a blast of icefire, freezing a barricade in front of their escapee, but no sooner had she gotten to her feet than it shattered before her.

The cobra cursed loudly. "Now!"

From the rooftop emerged another masked attacker - a petite figure in a fox mask, carrying a Keyblade that looked like woven clouds. Her leap carried her over the gathering, and she landed before Skuld's mother with her weapon closed in both hands, causing the woman to skid to a stop. A glance back revealed Riku had gotten to his feet and braced Soul Eater next to his eyes; Xion and Ephemer were at Skuld's sides, and the cobra and leopard were starting to advance forward.

"You figured it out," Van growled. "You control Skuld's magic. The Lilith pulses are born from your paranoia at knowing monsters wait under the surface of the human world. And if she's close enough when you're trying to flee, you force her to repel your attackers. But every cast is bringing her torment - because _she_ understands. She **knows** that monsters are no less kind than humans - unless we are given reason. She tries to fight against your commands, and _that's_ what's hurting her."

The mother was panicking. "You dare...!?"

" _Damn right_ I dare!" Van roared. His Keyblade was raised towards her. "You who would hate on us, just because of what we are - you are among the worst of humanity. In the eyes of a monster, you are _human_."

The bladed gear that formed the teeth of the Key reached forward, cutting lightly into her cheek.

"And in the eyes of a human, you're a _monster._ "

The weapon hovered before the cut, just long enough for a single drop of blood to land on the head; then he drew the weapon back. Riku quickly moved forward, and before Skuld's mother could react he set the face of the watch against her wrist. The build of the watch began to _glow_ \- a cold glow that started to mist in the air around it - and Riku unbound it from his hand before closing it on hers.

"Keep it on her," Riku instructed.

Van raised his Keyblade above his head as the werewolf approached Skuld. She was starting to get to her feet, and Riku knelt down next to her. "The rest is on you," he told her. "You need to force the magic out of you."

Skuld looked up to him. "Are you sure I can?"

"Positive," Riku promised. "Just close your eyes, and imagine it flowing out of you."

The human girl was tremoring, nervous; but she closed her eyes. She imagined herself, her own body, and she thought of the magic as coursing through her; then she pictured the magic making its way to the gem on her back, and once it was all there she pictured the gem coming away.

And she felt something separate from her back.

Out the bottom of her shirt dropped the emerald that had been there; and suddenly the strength was lost to her, and she fell forward, prompting Riku to catch her before she hit the ground. Xion quickly picked up the gem, looking it over in her hands. "What do we do with this?"

"Now Van can break it if he feels like it," Riku replied.

Xion tossed the jewel towards the vampire; and his geared Keyblade slashed through it without hardly slowing down; minute fragments hit the earth and faded away.

The cobra set a hand on the mother's arms. "We'll take her from here," she told the students.

"Let me go!" the woman snapped. "I won't be treated like this by a pack of-!"

"A pack of what, exactly?" the leopard interrupted. "You don't even know what we are. You're _human_ , and you think you're in any position to act all high and mighty? Humans can't even ally with _themselves._ You judge each other because of where you come from, or what you look like, or whether you have a sword or a sheath. Do you really think you're superior to those who can rip you to shreds if we feel the _slightest need?_ "

Their captive had gone sheet-white at this point.

Van saw fit to speak up. "What you have done has left its mark on you," he reprimanded, raising his Keyblade before himself. "Even if you can escape our retribution, that doesn't mean you've gotten away with anything. Your hatred, your attitude, your actions - they will follow you to the grave, and keep you out of Raqia..."

He unclipped his Keychain, and a drape of light wrapped the Keyblade in his hands as Sora's silver weapon appeared in his grip.

"...and Jade Passage alike."

The bright Key vanished from his grip, and he lowered his hand as the fox stepped forward. "If you don't mind my asking," she prompted, "what are you-"

"Wait a second," Van muttered, turning round. "I know that voice. You're Ava Vulpes."

The fox - Ava - stumbled back as Skuld and Ephemer exchanged confused glances. "What!?"

Van turned to the cobra and the leopard, which were looking at him with confused looks. "Which means you're Gula Leopardus, you're Invi Aguis, that brute around the corner is Aced Ursus, and the quiet guy on the second floor is Ira Unicornis."

Xion broke out laughing. "His last name is-?"

"Yeah, he gets a lot of hell for that," the leopard, Gula, admitted.

Invi, the cobra, shook her head. "I'm sorry, we don't know you," she insisted. "How do you know us?"

Van chuckled as he felt his last Lilith pulse starting to fade out. "Well, you-"

"-tell me."

Ava gasped as Van started to recede; his hair turning light brown, his eyes fading to ocean blue, the claws on his fingers receding into fingernails. "Wait, you're... that boy from Strife Delivery! You're-!?"

"Sora Kingdom." He winced, reaching for his forehead. "Leviath, that is _disorienting_."

Riku stepped up. "Would you mind explaining what that is?" he asked, beckoning to the bracelet still in Gula's hands.

The leopard sighed. "This is a remote arcana manipulator," he replied. "It acts as a source point for magic at range. That's how she ended up being the one to control the youngling's magic. Whoever gave this to her summoned the gem, but it had _her_ as the source."

Xion turned to Skuld. "Do you remember where she got it from?"

Skuld shook her head. "He never gave us a name," she murmured.

"Don't worry," Invi prompted. "Once it's been separated from the wearer for a while, we'll be able to track its source."

The two of them started to depart, and Ava approached Skuld, taking off her fox mask as she did. "Do you have any other family? Someone you could stay with?"

"I'm sorry, no," Skuld murmured.

Ava offered a hand. "Then, would you mind coming with me?"

Ephemer closed his own hand on her wrist. "Wait, hold on," he reprimanded. "Where are _you_ going to take her?"

"Have you ever heard of Yokai Academy?"

* * *

Draco: I know smartphones are a lot more versatile, but a flip-phone is way more aesthetically pleasing. I'm hoping they keep the cell designs from Advent Children in the VII remake.


	9. The Dandelion Initiative

Draco: That moment when you panic mid-beatbox and make a sound like you just dropped the guitar.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 9: The Dandelion Initiative**

"Have you ever heard of Yokai Academy?"

Ava's all-too-calm question caught Sora, Xion, and Riku by surprise. "Did you just say _Yokai_?" Riku demanded.

The expression that crossed Ava's face could only be described as 'self-reprimanding'. "You're all students," she realized. "Now I feel like a moron for not noticing that sooner."

Skuld glanced around at the gathered monsters. "What's Yokai Academy?" she asked.

"The guy who gave your mom that bracelet," Sora explained. "You mentioned he said there were people like Ephemer all over. Monsters - like us. That's what Yokai Academy is doing. It teaches monsters to blend in with humans - to live _alongside_ humans."

Xion turned to Ava. "You're affiliated with Yokai?"

"Kind of," Ava admitted.

"What do you mean, 'kind of'?"

+x+x+x+

The masked ones had come in two vehicles; Ira, Gula, Invi, and Aced had taken Skuld's mother in one set of wheels, leaving Ava a car. Skuld, Ephemer, and Riku elected to join her, leaving Sora and Xion to follow them in the Hardy-Daytona as they drove through Daybreak Town. Eventually, they came across a somewhat large building that looked like a repurposed _church_ ; Ava had her mask back on as she got out of the car.

"You wouldn't happen to have a huge number of younglings in there, would you?" Sora asked.

Looking impressed isn't easy with a mask on, but Ava managed it. "How did you know?"

Xion set a hand on Sora's shoulder. "This bloodsucking otaku probably saw it somewhere before," she guessed.

Riku was looking at the name carved - in cursive - above the door. " _Dandelion Garden,_ " he read aloud. "Who keeps a garden for weeds?"

"Dandelions spread on the wind," Ava mused. "Their seeds are carried to reaches unknown, whereupon they take root. Then the flowers grow, and produce their own seeds. The wind takes them, and carries them away."

She stepped up and rang the doorbell, causing a gentle ringing to echo through the building. After a moment, the door opened, revealing a teenage girl with seven different colours of dye in her hair. "Oh! Master Ava!"

"Good afternoon, Meg," Ava greeted. "Anything of note happen while I was gone?"

"Nothing, really," the girl replied, noticing everyone gathered. "Should I...?"

"Not yet."

Meg stepped aside, prompting Ava to lead the others in. There _were_ a great number of children gathered, and making a great deal of noise in the process; Sora muttered something about a 'town of beginnings' and covered his ears as Ava led them into a small office, with a half-oval desk and some _very_ comfortable chairs gathered around it. Ava took the lone seat on the flat side, beckoning for the others to take the seats around the curve; once everyone was comfortable, she removed her fox mask.

"The five of us - Ira, Invi, Gula, Aced and me - are part of a group known as Graveyard," she explained. "For a long time, we've been trying to... quell those who want to provoke old wars between mankind and monsterdom. Put that ideology in the ground, so to speak. A few years ago, our Master- Sorry," she admitted, on receiving several narrow gazes, "that's his title within the group. The Master was approached by the headmaster of Yokai Academy."

"Darkness in Zero," Sora mused.

Ava nodded. "DiZ suggested an alternative approach. Our interference with provokers _has_ proven successful, but not nearly at the rate that Yokai's teachings have. He suggested that, in the same way Yokai teaches monsters coexistence, we should try and teach humans the same."

Riku blinked. "That's a bit... bold."

"It is," Ava agreed. "We can't go full-force towards humans. Humanity has long condemned monsters to myth and legend - those who sight monsters are disregarded as... fantasy-seekers, conspiracy theorists, any number of derogatory names. The Master knew this. Instead, each of us five has been given a different role to slowly work that mentality into human minds.

"My role is the Dandelion Initiative. This place, the Garden, is... an orphanage, of sorts. But we also welcome any open-minded children who are willing to spend time with the orphans here. We teach them about monsters, and what they can do... with the warning that anything learned here must be kept quiet to the outside world."

Xion shook her head. "That sounds... counterproductive," she observed. "Why would you keep it quiet like that? What can it-"

"Human lifespan."

Sora's interruption drew everyone's attention. "What?" Riku accused.

"Humans have some of the shortest lifespans among sentient beings," he replied. "Snow fairies mature quickly, but even their ultimate life expectancy is significantly longer than any human's. That short lifespan often lends itself to... belief, I guess. Belief that the next generation will be able to carry on what their generation began. It's all but common knowledge that the future is in the hands of the children in the present."

Ava nodded. "Yes," she confirmed. "To the youngest ones, we instruct them to keep quiet about monsterdom, and their role in mankind. As they grow older, we suggest that they spread their knowledge to whoever they know, for a fact, will believe them. In time, that will mean their children - and _their_ children." She closed her hands before her. "At present, the Garden only exists here, in Daybreak Town. So often, I fear that these children will be ridiculed as..." She seemed to fish around for an appropriate term.

"Nerds," Riku offered.

"Geeks," Ephemer added.

"Otaku," Sora murmured.

A small smile rose just briefly on Ava's face. "Yes," she admitted. "I worry they'll been seen as a niche sort, and bullied, insulted, excluded. But I want to believe that someday, the Garden will spread - much as Yokai has. These teachings will be taught all over the world. And eventually, humans that discriminate against monsters... will be condemned. The same way that humans who discriminate against other humans are."

Her gaze turned to the human girl. "Skuld, I'd like you to stay here, at the Garden. You don't hate monsters, just because they are monsters. I want you to help spread that. And Ephemer," she added, turning to the crow tengu, "you are more than welcome to join us as well."

"Is that even okay?" Xion asked.

Ava nodded. "The Master instructed me that any monstrous children were to be welcomed, the same way humans are," she replied.

The snowgirl lowered her gaze. "That's beautiful," she murmured.

Skuld was quiet for a long moment. "I'll join you," she told Ava.

"And me too," Ephemer added.

A broad smile stretched across Ava's face. "Welcome to the Dandelion Garden."

+x+x+x+

"Can I ask you something?"

As much as Xion would have _liked_ to make it one trip back to Yokai, doubling up on a motorcycle that hasn't been modded for it is an excellent way to lose a passenger at highway speed. She volunteered to stay behind while Sora ferried Riku back, and Ava had elected to keep her company while she waited.

At Xion's question, the fox-masked girl only angled her head. "Something you want to know?"

"Not about the Garden," Xion admitted. "You five, in the masks... only have one Keyblade between you. Don't you?"

Ava seemed surprised. "You can tell?"

Xion nodded. " _Rokusasu_ and I share a Keyblade ourselves," she admitted. "And I noticed... Gula? invoke his Keyblade ready for his Keychain to alter it."

"Perceptive," Ava mused, glancing down at her hands. "Yes, there's only one between us. The Keychains serve to prepare it for our personal fighting styles. That's what our masks are for."

"Oh?"

Ava glanced back to make sure the door was closed firmly before drawing off her mask. "Well, that's _part_ of what our masks are for," she admitted. "They also serve as communications, and trackers for the Master, but their main purpose is to provide a video feed for each other. We can each see through the others' eyes, and that tells us who has our Keyblade at a given time. We generally try not to invoke it if someone else is using it. If we're ever in a situation where we all need a weapon, we don't use it at all except in emergency. We prepare alternate weapons instead."

Xion sighed. "That's... kind of impressive."

"It's dangerous," Ava admitted. "A Keyblade is a powerful thing. Having one Keyblade tied to multiple people is a great risk. None of us were sure we were up to it."

"Who did you get yours from?" Xion asked.

"That's a bit of a suspicious question," Ava reprimanded, "don't you think?"

"Y-yes," Xion agreed, turning away. "I suppose it is. Sorry."

Ava set the mask back over her face. "So," she prompted, "who's this 'Rokusasu'?"

Xion's face ignited. "That is absolutely _none_ of your business!" she snapped.

"And Sora?" Ava added. "I noticed something with you two. You better not be stringing a triangle."

"Says the top corner in a frickin' pentagon," Xion countered.

"Hey, we're business associates," Ava defended. "I don't even know what Invi looks like under that mask."

"That's nothin' to be ashamed of," Xion insisted. "You don't need to hide it if your attraction is based on her-"

"You know full well that's _not_ what I meant!" Ava argued.

Xion only laughed. "You mess with Nix, you get the wheel," she warned.

Ava groaned. "Devilish girl," she muttered.

"Sneaky fox."

The fox in question opened her mouth as though to speak... and promptly fell quiet. Xion's smile fell when she got to her feet in a hurry. "What?" Her hand went to the side of the mask, and after a moment she called, "Ready." Xion could hear some very fast-paced words running as Ava quickly interrupted, "S-Slow down, Gula, I can't make out what you're saying." A brief pause; "Sora and the werewolf have already departed. Just the snowgirl is here with me." Another pause; "What? A-Alright..." She quickly drew the mask off, turning to Xion. "They want to speak to you."

"Me?" Xion asked. Ava held the mask towards her, and the snow fairy awkwardly accepted it, holding it up to her face two-handed. "H-Hello?"

 _"Reception confirmed, Miss...?"_ The studious voice didn't belong to the snake or the leopard that they had met at the construction site.

"Karui. Xion Karui."

 _"Miss Karui."_ This was Invi. _"We've managed to track the magic tied to the bracelet worn by the magi-human's mother. Do you know a Luxord Fortune?"_

" **Luxord**?" Xion exclaimed, rushing to her feet.

 _"You do know him?"_

Xion loosed an irritable breath through clenched teeth. "Yes, I do," she confirmed. "Luxord is part of a group of monstrels known as Organization XIII. I used to be a member, myself. He's a deceptive strategist, and a devout believer in fate predetermined. He's got some of the strongest arcana in the group - if it's going to him, it won't be another proxy."

The studious voice spoke again. _"Miss Karui, the source arcana is flowing from a town called-"_

"Gatrea," Xion interrupted. "That one **is** a false. He routes all his magic through a sequence of towns and leaves traps at each decoy source. Do **not** travel to that location."

 _"...Understood,"_ Invi replied. _"Give the mask back to Ava, please."_

Xion drew it away from her face, handing it back to its owner. Ava quickly set it back upon her face. "...Yes, I'll make sure the Garden is defended. ...No, that won't be necessary. ... _Aced!_ ...Very well." Her hand went to the side again, and she turned to Xion. "How dangerous is this 'Luxord' in person?"

"His most practiced arcana is decelerating the movement speed of _everything_ in a given area," Xion replied. "But if you can counteract that, the only thing he can do is throw a knife at you."

Ava lowered her gaze. "That sounds powerful," she murmured. "I'll have to keep careful around here."

"Please do."

+x+x+x+

Sora was back for the second trip in short order; he and Xion hit the tunnel as the sun vanished behind the horizon. Kairi, Riku, Naminé, and Roxas were all waiting at the turnaround as they emerged onto Yokai grounds. "No troubles?" Naminé asked - having gotten the debriefing from Riku while they were waiting.

"I had to get gas on my way back," Sora admitted, "but other than that, everything's fine."

Xion hopped out of the Hardy's sidecar. "Skuld and Ephemer were having fun at the Garden when I left," she confirmed. "I don't think there's a better place they could've gone."

"The Dandelion Garden," Kairi murmured, a small smile on her face. "I never would've thought someone would be trying this whole 'coexistence' thing from the other side."

The six of them started out of the way. "Hey, Naminé," Riku prompted, "I just had a thought. Can _you_ do Lilith pulses?"

Naminé clicked her tongue; she had seen this coming, and was surprised it took this long for someone to bring it up. "Not low-level ones like Skuld was doing," she replied. "I could only do the high-level pulse - and Van without his inhibitions is not something I want to see."

 _You haven't exactly got joy hogging your console either, halfway,_ Van muttered.

Sora struck the jewel of his rosario with his nails, and the glow of the cross faded off as he turned to the witch. "How can you do the strong pulses and not the weak ones?"

"The designations are a bit of a misnomer," Naminé admitted. "A high-level Lilith pulse lets the..." She fished around for the right word for a moment, settling on " _delimiting_ magic run wild. A low-level pulse is still using the same amount of magic, but it's focused on one function - holding back a human disguise. That's a lot more difficult."

"Then how was Skuld doing the low-level pulses?" Roxas asked.

"Her mother had control over her magic, right?" Naminé reminded. "Her paranoia in knowing that monsters were hiding below the surface would concentrate the magic on stripping away the facade."

"Wouldn't that drain her?" Kairi asked.

Naminé shook her head. "Gem summoning is weird like that," she admitted. "All the magic cast is drawing its power from the host body. At Skuld's age, where her latent energy hasn't taken definitive form, the magic has a lot of power to draw on. As long as what she wants to do and what her mother wants to do aren't clashing, there's not a lot of magic that would bring her harm."

Kairi's gaze fell. "Then... what does that mean for her, long-term?"

"She's gonna get tired a little easier for a few years," Naminé replied. "You two should know, humans are stubborn creatures."

"Sorry for surviving!" Roxas protested.

Xion had been quiet most of the conversation, prompting Sora to turn back to her. "Something the matter?" he asked.

"No, sorry," the snow fairy insisted. "I'm just... thinking." Turning to Sora; "Have you tried doing that thing Gula did with his Keychain?"

Kairi, Naminé and Roxas exchanged confused glances before turning back. "What thing?"

Sora sighed, a smirk rising on his face as he reached into his pocket and drew out Van's S-gear Keychain. "Van said he wanted to try this sometime. I'm hoping it'll work without me." He trapped the clip between thumb and index finger, and as everyone watched he released it, angling his hand as it fell and calling his Keyblade just as it escaped his grip.

It started as a flicker of light; then the chain hooked on the glow, and that bloody surge of shadow overtook the shine as Van's sharp-geared Keyblade nestled into his grip.

"Woah," Riku gasped.

"Yeah, woah," Sora agreed, angling the weapon to the side. He quickly unclipped the Keychain, letting it fade back to his silver skeleton key before dismissing it. "Should save me the trouble of putting it on before Kairi grabs my rosario."

Xion smirked. "I'd still love to know where he got that thing," she murmured. "I mean, it just..."

She fell quiet as they all remembered when Van's Keyblade had first appeared - manifesting amidst a darkness that had caught them all off-guard.

"...We should probably call it a night," Kairi mused. "Before a teacher sees us out here and gets us in trouble for being gone."

"Agreed," Riku admitted. "See you guys tomorrow."

"Yeah."

+x+x+x+

Sora opened his eyes.

He was surrounded by nothing - an empty, endless void in all directions around him. His headfirst plummet had the air caressing his skyclad form, making the spikes of his hair tremor from the movement. As he continued to drop, he shifted mid-fall, going to a spread-eagle float and then to a foot-first landing as he touched down on a solid surface - unseen in the void. The moment his foot shifted as he glanced around, a radiant shine emerged from below him; he raised his hands to guard his eyes as it expanded outward, cutting through the darkness like a blade and letting the wound spread open.

When it faded, the surface below him was a circle of stained glass; and it showed his own image, slumped against the outer ring, with his silver Keyblade in hand. Another circle, roughly half the size, rested high within the circle, and within that were nested seven smaller circles. His figure covered two of them, and in the other five were the faces of his friends; Riku, Naminé, Roxas, Xion, Kairi. An urban lanscape spread across what was not covered by those faces, and around the edges of the station were the image of a curled heart, in shining crimson.

Darkness pulsed in from the edges of his vision, and a pained yelp emerged from him as he stumbled forward, hunching over slightly. Shadows seemed to reach towards him from all ends of that void, necrous tendrils curling around his body - yet they made no move to harm him or even restrict his movement, and he stood tall as it solidified around him. A bloody glow tinged the darkness at his palm, around his chest, and the shadows flayed out from his waist level as something solid emerged below his feet, forming a barrier between the station and his soles.

When at last it took form, Sora was wrapped in what looked like woven muscle tissue - as he had been last year.

"I thought I told Xion I'm not a badass."

 _And you're absolutely right._

The dark voice that emerged from around him caused Sora to turn, leaping away - and crossing the station in one jump. A sourceless light had cast a shadow immediately behind him, and as he watched that shadow lifted off the ground, standing as solidly as he was. A pair of glowing golden eyes lit up on that shadow as its figure solidified; the face paled, the hair became strands of shadowy black. A fire was lit in that shadow, crimson rising from the roots but never reaching the tips as the nails took the form of claws like pin tumbler keys.

The gold in its eyes receded, becoming a ring to separate a jet-black pupil from a bloody crimson iris.

And shadows danced around its body, slowly taking the form of a Yokai Academy uniform.

"Van?"

"No, Thundering Gale Syldra of Feymarch." The sarcasm on his voice sounded ominous in this darkness. "I was wondering when you'd be driven enough to dive."

Sora blinked, confused. "Dive...?"

Van shook his head, a smile on his face. "The heart is a sanctum that none can penetrate. Here, you stand face to face with that which lies within you. A place you can ask yourself questions you don't know the answer to."

The Keyslinger's gaze fell. "What am I doing here?"

"You're here because you want to be," the clawslinger insisted. "There's something you want to know, or something you want to do - something you're not getting with your body. Whether you know it or not, you will only dive to the heart if you desire to see it."

"Are you sure?"

" _Certe, ut sit nomen meum Vanitas._ "

* * *

Draco: You guys are going to hate me for this, but this... is _not_ a cliffhanger. This is a dangling thread to keep you wondering. I am so sorry.

Additionally, I'm probably not going to get the next chapter out with any speed. My troubles with FFN have been narrowed down to the exact manner of connection I am using, and it's going to take a bit before I can do something about that. Deepest apologies.


	10. Diabolos' Playthings

Draco: I do not even have an excuse. I don't think this thing has been updated since Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out. {checks my page} Okay, I wrote (most of) Gunplay on the Great Sea after Breath of the Wild came out and K+C got updated after that, but I still started this chapter with a Breath of the Wild reference. Then I hardballed my literations on deviantART and lent a hand with a TWEWY fic Aurya was working on, then I got Final Fantasy Tactics, then Dissidia NT came out, then I got my hands on World of Final Fantasy... goddess, I've been an absolute idiot.

I'm gonna be totally honest with you guys, I can't guarantee this is going to mark a solid bout. I'm in the middle of II on my literations, I've gotten into a Bravely mood again, Age Before the Eternal Wind is in an interesting state of priority, and I have some things going on in the background that I absolutely refuse to elaborate on. I just want to have the start of this going so I can keep my train of thought on track.

Characters, weapons, origins © Square Enix and Disney. Monsters, setting, and encyclopedia © Akihisa Ikeda.

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Diabolos' Playthings**

" _Koyoi sekai o kainarasu you ni  
Kimi no butai no toriko ni shite?  
Suberu you ni tsukamitore  
Shinario-doori no EncorE_"

The loud tones of seven synchronous Vocaloids cut through the darkness of Sora's bedroom and shattered whatever dream he might have been dreaming. Weakly, he fumbled about his bedside table and grasped his phone, flicking it open and raising it to his ear. "Sav'otta."

A female voice with a strong accent emerged from the phone. _"...What did you just call me? The Botta?"_

"Not 'boe', **voe** ," Sora grumbled. "Bite your bottom lip as you say it."

 _"What the hell does that mean?"_

"Sav'otta means 'good morning' in the language of the desert circa 100 AGC." As he drifted out of sleep, Sora realized he didn't recognize the voice on the other end, and so asked, "Who is this?"

 _"...If you're answering the phone with 'good morning', I think I've got the wrong number,"_ the voice mused. _"Sorry to bother you."_

Sora chuckled. "Don't worry about it," he assured the other end. "Happens to everyone."

 _"Goodbye."_

"Sav'orq."

He flicked the phone shut, and his rosario lit up against his crown. _Did you just answer the phone in Gerudo?_

"Next time you tell me to go straight to bed after a binge on Zelda Wiki," Sora muttered, "I'm gonna take a shower first."

 _You can't herb a shower,_ Van reprimanded.

"Exactly," Sora insisted. "A good shock will stop me from doing something stupid the next morning." He glanced at his phone's display.

 **12:30**

"Afternoon. Whatever."

 _You're lucky it's a weekend._

+x+x+x+

Sundays at Yokai were never quite as lazy as a Sunday elsewhere might be - and that particular Sunday found Sora in the library, which was where Riku found him. "Sora Kingdom, in the library, in the afternoon, on the weekend?" he mused. "This is making the next headline."

"Ha, ha, hilarious," Sora reprimanded, not looking up as he turned a page.

"What are you reading?" Riku inquired, taking a seat across.

"Not leisure," Sora informed him, turning another page. "Research."

Riku chuckled. "What's got you researching with a paper book?"

Sora paused on one page, then turned to the next. "Van said something the other day that sounded vaguely familiar," he explained, "and I'm having trouble finding the right link on the chain. Ace recommended this."

The werewolf angled his head so he could read the cover. " _An Analysis of the Workings and Functions of the Mortal Heart, as Observed by the Children of Etro_?" 'Children of Etro' was the formal version of a name he had come across more often than he would have liked - the 'Deathless', as they were more frequently called, were those who held belief in a deity he had usually seen described as a goddess of death. "What do you need a religious textbook for?"

The vampire shook his head. "I'm just trying to wake the right memories," he insisted. Then, setting the book down and holding a finger to the text. "And I think I've found it." Riku quickly circled the table to see what Sora was reading.

 _Dive to the Heart_ _  
A state of rest in which the mortal heart creates a stage for self-contemplation, into which the heart's owner enters with a manifestation dependent on the way they are viewed by themselves and those who care for them. The stage is known to take different forms dependent on the beliefs of the entrant, i.e. the shores of Valhalla for devout among the Deathless.  
Within one's own heart, one is kaiser. The origin entrant is able to manipulate and alter their surroundings at will with sufficient awareness. However, the primary purposes of the Dive to the Heart are as follows:  
-To allow freedom of movement and thought in a situation where the body will not obey the commands of the mind (i.e. the origin entrant has entered a coma)  
-To allow ventilation of emotions which are not safe to express with the body (i.e. anger in a situation where violence will lead to negative consequences)  
-To allow confrontation with internal dillema  
-To contemplate questions to which the origin entrant cannot find answers outside of the heart  
Time is cited to flow at inconsistent speeds within the heart, akin to the temporal disconnection that occurs in mortal dreams. In a situation where the body will not obey the commands of the mind for an extended period of time, entrants have reported spending mere minutes before waking to a body that has been dormant for weeks. In other situations, in-depth mental calculations taking several hours have been reported as passing in scant minutes.  
In rare situations, an entrant is believed to be able to enter into another's heart, provided the origin entrant of the destination heart is willing. The resulting dive possesses many similarities to the concept of 'shared dreaming'. However, this is often dismissed as being a consequence of alterations within the heart after consulting another about their own dive, rather than a truly linked dive, with matching reports regarded to be an effect of mutual alteration.  
Uniquely, the Dive to the Heart is not a phenomenon exclusive to Children of Etro; though most common among the Deathless, individuals of other beliefs have often reported experiences matching those of a dive. This has led to a common conclusion among scientifically-inclined individuals that the Dive to the Heart is a phenomenon caused by the mind rather than the mortal heart, being the result of high-focus images occurring at the speed of thought._

"That's... um..."

The werewolf's disbelief was clear in his voice. "...Yeah," Sora lied, "I think that'll be the last time I ask Ace for advice."

+x+x+x+

While Riku was looking for the vampire, Kairi found herself stumbling upon the witch at the edge of the wood surrounding the graveyard. Naminé had a sketchbook in hand and some pencils lined up at her side, and inquired "What brings you out here?" when she noticed Kairi approaching.

"Just sort of wandering," Kairi admitted. "I'm still sore from that round with Seven."

"Told you you should have stuck with the card tables," Naminé reprimanded.

"My father was against me going to Yokai because he thought it was a drugrunner's front," Kairi reminded her. "If I go broke playing Rem and Machina he's not going to let me come back." She stepped up to Naminé's side. "What are you working on?"

In response, Naminé turned her sketchbook to show off the image. It was a figure who looked rather youthful, yet dressed in a rather important-seeming manner; a blue tunic tight to a thin figure, with yellow trim upon the collar and sleeves, a cape flowing from the shoulders, and a pattern down the torso that looked like squares of multiple colours, peaking at chest height with a crown-like shape. The leggings were less elegant, although a pair of sturdy boots were thigh-high and seemed to be armoured. The face was rather gentle-looking, and blonde hair flowed in a short ponytail that stopped just beyond the point where the cape would begin.

Amusingly, the witch seemed to have been in the middle of drawing the nose; if Kairi didn't look for it, she couldn't even tell it was supposed to be there.

"Your work is as amazing as ever," she observed. Then she angled her head uncertainly. "Is that supposed to be a guy, or a girl?"

Naminé pursed her lips. "You know, I'm not sure yet."

Kairi turned to her. "Wait, what?"

"When I work like this, I'm not really planning it out in advance," Naminé explained, starting to add something to one of the figure's hands - making it as though he (Kairi decided it was probably a he) was grasping something. "The idea just sort of... comes together, with my pencil as the conduit."

"That sounds... distressingly like you trying to find someone," Kairi murmured.

Naminé giggled at that. "There's no magic involved," she insisted. "That's just how art works."

Kairi, who was not particularly artistically inclined, only shrugged. "If you say so."

+x+x+x+

As it happened, Seven was busy making someone sore even as her name was spoken. Roxas' promise about Xion's timeframe for strategic improvement had not been particularly innacurate; a month and a half after starting a regular regimen at Wings of Fire, the snow fairy had barely scored a second on the clock before the vermilion had her on the floor each time.

Eight, sitting on a chair in one corner, shook his head. "This isn't working," he mused.

"No," Roxas admitted from the other corner, "it's really not."

"You're the one who was brawling when we were kids," Xion muttered from the floor. "I always hung back and played support."

Seven pulled off of her. "From the way you two were talking first time you came here," she observed, "I thought you had close-range weapons."

Xion pulled back, sitting on her knees. "We do," she explained, "but I started out at range. I only learned how to swing it because things kept getting too close."

"In other words," Seven observed, "you're the kind to focus on your weapon because the rest of your body usually isn't relevant?"

"Ye-" Xion fell quiet, narrowing her gaze, and turned to Roxas uncertainly. "Um?"

Roxas hissed awkwardly. "You... tend to run in," he admitted. "It's been a slow development, but by the time we ran into Kairi..."

"Fell Lindzei," Seven cursed, rubbing her forehead. "You focus on your blade and you don't even have a good reason for it?"

"You can't just go from weapon extremism to total unarmed combat and expect to kick ass," Xion defended.

"Of course you can't," Eight muttered. Then, with a sigh, he got to his feet. "Cater's never gonna let me live this down."

Seven turned to him. "You said you were never going to let me do that."

"Let you do what?" Roxas asked, worried. "What are you two planning?"

"We train _hand-to-hand_ combat here," Eight explained, making his way to a nearby cabinet. "Anybody who wants to use a weapon can deal with Queen or Sice. But that newspaper you guys run is responsible for the business we've been getting. So I'm willing to... bend the rules a bit."

He drew something out and tossed it to Seven; a metal spike, sharpened on all sides, with a handle affixed to it. At first glance it looked to be a dagger, yet when she caught it by the handle, it was quickly apparent that the handle in question was flexible, obviously preventing it from being used to thrust. "What is that?" Roxas demanded.

Seven turned and swung the item down - and the item _elongated_ , separating into seven segments between the base to which the handle was connected and the spike at the tip. She swung it before her once before lashing it down to her side, letting it hang there - it was a whip, but covered in blades.

"Draw your weapon," Seven instructed. "We'll see if that does you any better."

Xion smirked. "Oh, you're on."

She raised her left hand before her, and light flowed from her palm, parallel streams framing her eyes; then one curled into a heart, and the other arced out to spike into kanji whilst chain links flowed from the pommel. A single thalassa shell appeared at the end of the chain as the weapon solidified, and she lashed the weapon down so its rainbow shaft caught the light - and angel wings closed around her grip.

"You asked," Seven warned.

Roxas shot Eight a worried glance and found a _smirk_ on the brawler's face.

+x+x+x+

Later that day, Riku made his way to the school rooftop and found Naminé there, sketching. "Looks like a lazy day on all sides," he observed.

"And Kairi said that the school year being on meant we were gonna be getting into fights every other day," Naminé snarked.

Riku glanced at the sheet to find her doing a background on the swordsman Kairi has seen; he now had a basket-hilted rapier in his grip, and she was adding detail to the environs of an old-fashioned city around him. "Called it quits with those armour pieces?" he inquired.

"Its weird," Naminé admitted, "I tried to draw something more with them, and I just couldn't make the art work. It's like... the story's ended."

"Maybe," Riku observed. "Or maybe your hands just have other plans."

Naminé gave him a look. "You make it sound like I've got ghosts in my fingers," she reprimanded.

"You know what they say about idle hands," insisted Riku - to whom Naminé had explained the mechanics of her art habits before.

"Oh, shut up," Naminé muttered. "I make art to keep my hands from _being_ idle."

"Maybe Diabolos has different opinions on what qualifies as idle," Riku mused.

A blue glow seemed to emerge from under the cuff of Naminé's sleeve; then a sudden _jolt_ rippled across Riku's fingers, and he yelped, stumbling back, as the glow faded.

"Okay, I get it," he muttered. "You never could take a joke."

"Do I have to amp up the voltage?" Naminé reprimanded.

"I'm going, I'm going."

The werewolf took off, leaving Naminé to continue her work; after a moment, she decided she was satisfied with the background and turned the page, starting to sketch anew.

+x+x+x+

Sora, meanwhile, had found Roxas and Xion sparring in a graveyard on the school grounds. "I take it things didn't go well at Wings of Fire," he called.

Roxas turned to him. Xion grabbed his sword hand by the wrist hard enough that he released his dark Keyblade, prompting the yoko to dash her fingers with his and leap away; the snowgirl sighed, propping her light weapon over her shoulder. "Seven let me change tactics," she admitted, "but she's still kicking my ass twelve ways to next week."

"You are lasting longer, though," Roxas admitted.

The vampire hooked his hands behind his head. "What do you mean, 'change tactics'?" he asked. "How?"

Roxas called his Keyblade back to hand. "She let her draw a weapon," he explained, "in exchange for getting to draw one of her own. The main thing we're trying to get her to do is stop focusing on a blade, so I think we're getting some strategic improvement at last."

"I'm right here, _Rokusasu_ ," Xion reprimanded.

"Yes, I know," Roxas admitted. "Am I wrong?"

Xion scoffed, turning to Sora. "How has your day been?" she inquired, changing the subject.

"Not interesting," Sora admitted. "I did some browsing in the library, saw a few things I'd rather not have, but other than that-"

"What were you looking for in the library?" Roxas asked.

 _Don't answer that,_ Van reprimanded.

Sora rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

"I was being-"

"Not you," he insisted, turning back to Roxas. "Van's been a smartass." Then, answering the question; "I've been having these weird thoughts lately, and I'm starting to wonder if it's just me not getting enough sleep or if there's something more to it."

Xion dismissed her weapon. "What did your research have to say about that?"

"I'm not sure I want to share," Sora admitted.

"Come on," Xion insisted, "tell us."

"...Promise you're not gonna laugh?"

+x+x+x+

While Roxas was trying to convince Sora that he would avoid laughing, Kairi's idle wandering had taken her to the bus turnaround near the tunnel of the fourth dimension. Part of her was relieved when the bus didn't pull up there - but at the same time, part of her was wondering how exactly the bus driver _knew_ that she didn't want him to pull up there. Putting it out of her mind, her attention was drawn to an old, leafless tree - where, last year, she had been ambushed on not her second day at the Yokai.

 _I haven't seen Kadaj all year,_ she observed. _I don't even think he was there for the self-study class. I mean, I did scare him before school shut down last year, but this place is a lesson in coexistence. He didn't seem like the type to learn so easily._

She sighed, turning away. "Not that I'm complaining," she said to herself. _The last thing I need this year is a preyer._

It was getting late, so she started back towards the school - and that was when an engine echoed out of the tunnel. Concerned, she turned to find a familiar pair of headlights shining out of the darkness; in short order, the Yokai bus emerged, coming to a stop next to that lifeless tree. The door opened, and she heard a male voice - a rather formal voice at that - speaking to the driver; then its owner stepped out of the bus.

Kairi's jaw fell.

Black garb that looked almost defensive, with threatening spikes emerging from the pauldrons; silver sabatons and greaves that extended from his ankles to halfway up his thighs; and what seemed to be a coin purse sat on his hip, with a distinctively masculine design. If nothing else, Kairi could describe his outfit as 'old-fashioned', and nobody would object to it. But his face - Kairi _knew_ his face. She had seen it just today... on Naminé's artwork. His blonde hair seemed to have had its ponytail cut short, and his nose was not as invisible as it had been when Naminé had abandoned it mid-sketch, but nonetheless he was the spitting image of the noble figure she had been drawing when Kairi had met her earlier.

The stranger had a package under his arm; he glanced around for a moment before seeing her. "Pardon me, miss," he prompted, stepping toward her. "Are you a student here?"

"I-I... I, yes," Kairi stuttered. "You... Why do you ask?"

"Mayhap you could escort me to the headmaster's office?" he inquired. "I've a delivery that he specifically requested be brought to him in person, yet I fear I'm unfamiliar with this location. I would hate to hand it to someone who claimed to be who they are not." Even his speech patterns were old-fashioned, although Kairi noticed he lacked anything that could rightly be called 'Old Speak'.

For a moment, she was about to consent to his request of escort, but then she realized that she wasn't a hundred percent sure she would find the headmaster's office in the same place it had been yesteryear. One hand went awkwardly to the back of her head. "Um... Well, I'm not..."

Something drew her attention; her holy lock was sticking out the cuff of her sleeve, and it seemed to be waving as though caught in wind... despite there being no wind that would move it.

"Is something the matter?" the stranger asked.

"Uh, no," Kairi replied, remembering what sort of things the headmaster had done already this year. "I should be able to take you there. Come with me."

One arm held before her, she made to guide this newcomer through Yokai Academy.

* * *

Draco: Is Y'shtola's surname of Rhul a recent development in XIV? I'm _certain_ her wiki page was just titled "Y'shtola" when I started this thing. I was obsessing because I didn't want to come up with a faux surname for a character who was that developed.

Once again, new game means new batches of characters for me to make use of. Tactics comes first. Also, it strikes me that just about any non-Class Zero character from Type-0 will make for decent human-world individuals when I need some of those, although I'm still a bit hesitant on that front.


End file.
